Captured in her Eyes
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: A murderer is loose in Konoha. Can a special investigation team find him before he can murder more people? Will Naruto manage to hide his abilities long enough to not be a victim of the council while he had to protect the important witness?
1. Prologue

**Hi, this is my new Naruto story. It's based on the fourth Detective Conan Movie 'Captured in her Eyes'. Hope you like it. **

**As Usual I don't own Naruto or Detective Conan. This disclaimer holds true for all following chapters.**

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><p><strong>Captured in her eyes<strong>

**Prologue**

It was a beautiful day. The sky was clear and light blue, only a few white, tufty clouds were slowly drifting over the peaceful country. Around her she could hear other children laughing and running around while she was looking around through the binoculars, installed at the highest mountain of the theme park. It was a great view. The park had eight different theme zones, all in correlation of ninjas, as this was one of the newest tourist attractions fire country had, the Ninja Adventure Land.

Due to the very generous gift of the Fire Daimyo, the whole ninja academy of Konoha had been invited to spend the day here. It had taken a lot of persuasion on Iruka sensei's part, her studying deep into the night for weeks to ace three class tests, the assurance of Hokage Sama and the Daimyo to allow her to come here with her classmates. Sometimes she hated being the heiress of Konoha's most influential clan, born with a valuable kekkei genkai. Due to her being unsealed, the clan elders and her father feared that she could be kidnapped from the Adventure Land by enemy countries.

Hokage Sama had sent some high-ranking shinobi to protect all the students of the academy during the visit. They mostly kept away from the students and so she could forget that they were around. When they had reached the park, their senseis had told them, that they could explore the park in groups, they could choose themselves. In her class the usual groups soon built.

Shikamaru and his best friend Choji had been together and Kiba, their sometimes skipping companion had come along with them. A big surprise for everybody was the group of Sasuke, the number one love interest of nearly all the girls in her class, with Shino. Obviously Sasuke didn't mind the company of the quiet Aburame heir. A lot of Sasuke's fan girls were mad. They had hoped that Sasuke would take one of them to accompany him and the dislike of most of them for Shino's bugs, let them keep their distance to the pair. On second thought, that could have been a major reason for Sasuke to team up with Shino.

So some girls built groups to explore and of course observe Sasuke from a distance, so did some boys, obviously without the Sasuke part. She had been very happy when she had been partnered, even if she and her companion had been the last remaining children. Iruka sensei had paired them and then he and two other teachers had gone exploring for themselves.

Speaking of her companion … where was he? Looking around, she only saw other unknown visitors. She was disappointed. She really wanted to spend the day with him. Even if nobody else wanted to be in a group with him, she couldn't understand this, because he was really nice. As she had been too shy to ask somebody to let her into their group, she had been partnered with the other leftover of their class. Despite many people's believes, her companion wasn't annoying and rude or a good for nothing, he had a nice sense of humor and so far, the day with him had been great.

For three whole hours his attention had been hers. It was really easy to keep it too. Contrary to Iruka sensei's problems to get him listen in his classes, he had been really attentive with her. Admittedly, she had to share the attention with the attractions in the theme park, but it was the most he had ever paid her attention before. In class he was always distracted with his little crush on Sakura and the building rivalry with Sasuke. The belittlement of the others didn't help either to get him concentrate on her, even if she would have had the courage to talk to him, being shy as she was.

With time passing she had begun to relax in his company. She still stuttered but it became lesser. He was fun to be around and he didn't mind her stuttering at all. But where did he go? She returned to watching the park through the binoculars.

Somebody approached her. Suddenly something really cold was held against her cheek and she turned around startled.

"Did I scare you, Hinata?" He asked smiling, holding a can with cola in front of her face.

"No, I was just startled and surprised, Naruto. Is this for me?" She asked.

"Yes, I thought you must be thirsty."

"Thank you." She said blushing and took the can.

Naruto smiled brighter and looked at his watch.

"So late?" He said. "We have to hurry, Hinata!" He said and took Hinata's hand.

He pulled her after him and both broke into a run. Hinata had to concentrate hard to stay conscious and to not faint. She just liked Naruto very much and it was really unfortunate, that she always fainted when he was too close. She really wanted to change this to be able to spend more time with him.

They ran until they reached a big octagonal place, which was surrounded by small waterfalls. This was the area where the park showed which kind of technology and inventions the scientists in fire country had made in the recent past. It was the most modern part of the theme park. Naruto led Hinata into the center of the place.

"Wow, that was close." He said.

"Why are we here, Naruto?" She asked.

"You will see, Hinata." He said mysteriously. He constantly kept looking at his watch.

"Ten, nine, eight …" He began counting down, confusing Hinata.

"Three, two, one and …."

Suddenly, starting from the small waterfalls fountains, beams shot from all out of the ground. Soon Naruto and Hinata were surrounded by fountains of water, themselves being dry in the center of the spectacle. Hinata was awestruck. It was simply beautiful.

"Do you like it?" Naruto asked. "I overheard some of the personnel when I went buying the cola that the start the fountains every two hours." He scratched the back of his head.

"Thank you, Naruto. I really like it, it is simply beautiful." She answered happily, touched that he would do this for her.

Then she looked up and her smiling grew more intense.

"Look a rainbow!" She said.

"Yes, beautiful. Hey, let's celebrate your success in those three tests with the cola." Naruto suggested.

They opened their cans, but from the running, the cola was shaken too much and the liquid splashed into their faces. They both looked at each other and then began to laugh together, while the fountains slowly went down again.

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><p><strong>I hope for many nice rewiews. The next chapter of Results of a Poker Night is in owrk, but now my older PC that I used to writehad given up working as well and now I don't have any PC to write. Sorry. Only already finished chapters will be published for some time as I always save my work on an USB-stick.<strong>


	2. Witnessing Murder

**Hi, this is chapter two.**

**Thanks to those that left reviews last time. I hope you like the new chapter as well, because now things really start.**

**Happy reading.**

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><p><strong>Witnessing murder<strong>

Naruto walked home from the academy. It hadn't been a good day, but then, when did he have a good day there? Well, he had to admit, it had got better. Iruka sensei had started treating him like all the others about a half year from when he started teaching him. Naruto could live with that. But all the other teachers, especially Mizuki were downright nasty. None of them treated him fairly and they tried to sabotage him, wherever they thought they could get away with it. And they thought he didn't notice.

Nearly all of the parents had forbidden their children to even talk with him. The exceptions were some of the ninja clan raised children. Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba seemingly didn't have such problems with him. But he only had a loose friendship with them. He could spend some time with them at the academy, but outside it was lonely. The parents were so stupid in his opinion. Especially those, who were just civilians. He sighed. If they only knew.

He had built a reputation of being a talentless fool who liked to prank the whole village. But he could hardly show his true abilities. If the villagers thought he was strong and talented they would go haywire. Stupid, prejudiced fools. It had been really hard when he was younger, but now he was able to avoid nearly all negative contact with them. He was kind of proud of his ability to deceive the whole village.

He wasn't the stupid looser, everybody thought he was, quite the opposite. But if he ever showed his abilities while he was still at the academy, everybody would think the Kyubi had taken him over or, the favorite belief of most of those with no common sense, that he was the Kyubi. As if the fox would have taken all that horrible treatment by the villagers for twelve years without retaliation.

Oh yes, he knew about the fox. Naruto was highly intelligent. And even if he had been just of average intelligence, it was kind of obvious if somebody put the clues together. Being called 'demon, monster and beast' and being told 'to die for his crimes' since he could walk and talk, makes you suspicious that more is going on. If you add your birthday, October 10th, the fact that bijus could only be sealed but not killed and a big seal appearing on your stomach, whenever you mold chakra and you can figure it out.

He hadn't told the Hokage, that he knew. It was better not to worry the old man. He was after all one of those who were really kind to him. Naruto knew that the Sandaime Hokage wanted to do more for him, but couldn't due to his many duties. And to be honest, the Hokage was old and should have retired some time ago, but somehow fate had a strange sense of humor to rob him of all possible successors. First when he had retired and Minato Namikaze had become the Yondaime, this had only been for a little more than a year before the Yondaime had sacrificed his life to rescue Konoha from the Kyubi.

Then some years after Sarutobi had been Hokage again, the most promising candidate to take over in a few years, when he had got more experience, Itachi Uchiha had killed his whole clan in a seemingly spurt of insanity. If only Konoha knew that they had just escaped a coup. Not even Sarutobi knew this, but Naruto knew that the Uchiha massacre had been an order given to Itachi. How he knew that? Well, having a godfather, who had said Uchiha as a main part of his spy network, did give you an advantage in knowledge. Of course only a select few knew that Naruto had contact with Jiraiya and was taught the working procedures of this network to continue when Jiraiya retired.

Naruto looked around. Many looked at him with hatred in their eyes.

'Stupid idiots, if I was the Kyubi, I would have destroyed Konoha many times by now. Do they really think a demon would be patient for twelve years while being treated like I am?' He thought irritated.

He crossed a jonin with dark green hair who wrote something in a notebook.

'Must be collecting information for an ongoing investigation. But why does he do this in the open? Perhaps nothing of high rank. Since the Uchiha massacre, Konoha doesn't have a police force anymore. Could be a reason.' Naruto pondered.

Naruto liked some of the higher ranking ninjas in the village. They were normally not as stupid as some lower ranks and understood the concept of sealing. The difference between him and the fox. Some were distant but didn't openly glare at him. He knew that most of his earlier ANBU guards when he had been younger had stopped seeing him as a danger, when they had observed him for some time. He could accept that. Jinchuriki like him could sometimes be dangerous if their seals were too weak or they were mentally unstable.

When they saw, that neither was true with Naruto, they had taken to treat him like any other child in the village. Not that ANBU had a lot of contact with the children of the village anyway. But it was nice to know he wasn't hated by them. One had even helped him getting started with his training in taijutsu after he had seen how the teachers at the academy taught him wrong movements in his first lesson. One with a weasel mask. Sadly he must have been killed on a mission, because he had disappeared when Naruto was seven.

He looked at his watch.

'I better hurry if I want to be on time for training.' He thought.

On his way home he saw Kiba with his dog Akamaru on his head and Choji next to a food parlor. Naruto shortly greeted them by raising his hand and they nodded in response.

'Fits for Choji to stop here. From what he told me in class, he really likes their takeout. I should come here sometime to try it under a transformation.' He pondered.

A cloaked figure appeared next to the jonin. That was not that unusual. It happened that ANBU called other ninjas for the Hokage. The jonin looked up from his notebook and seemed to relax, seemingly recognizing the newcomer, which strengthened the thought of him being an ANBU. Then suddenly the cloaked figure thrust a kunai into the jonin's chest and disappeared. Naruto who saw this ran to the jonin to help, but he just grabbed his chest over the heart, seemingly to grab the kunai, looked into Naruto's eyes trying to say something, but couldn't and died. The attacker had hit a vital point.

A bit later three ANBU landed next to the victim. They wore grey cloaks and white animal masks. They checked the jonin for any signs of life, but couldn't find a pulse.

"No chance. He is already dead. The attacker knew what he did." The leader with a bird mask said.

"Orders, captain?" The ANBU with the ox mask asked.

"Question everybody who was around here. As we have lunch break, most villagers are at home, so we only have a few witnesses. I will take the three children that were nearby with me to Hokage Sama. You question the shop owners around and the ones who stood around. I don't know what information the civilians can give. Our best chance are the academy students. They should be trained to spot more details."

"Understood, captain." The ANBU said and began with his task.

Naruto was shaking madly. The ANBU thought because he had just seen somebody being murdered in front of his eyes. After all, no academy student would have been confronted with death. But actually Naruto was furious he couldn't stop the attack. Of course all signs had been that this was just a normal occurrence of an ANBU contacting a jonin, especially after the jonin dropped his guard and relaxed, but he had been next to them, just three meters away or so. And he had been useless. He had to train more in detection of intent of strangers. But perhaps it was because he himself hadn't been threatened. He had a good sense of danger normally. He would have to ask Jiraiya.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you have to accompany us to the Hokage to tell him what has happened here. As you were next to the victim when it happened you are one of our best chances to get hints of the culprit." Bird explained. Naruto nodded, having expected this.

"Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, the same goes for you."

The ANBU with the frog mask disappeared with the corpse while the captain gathered the three boys near him.

"Take hold of my arm, I'm going to use body flicker to get to the tower." the ANBU captain said, the boys obeyed and they all disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

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><p>When they reappeared in the Hokage's office, the Sandaime looked surprised at the group.<p>

"What happened?" He asked, thinking that Naruto had pulled a rather heavy prank to require his ANBU to escort him here.

"My team and I were on patrol in the village when we crossed the location of the murder of jonin Isamu Nakasawa. We were too late to follow the murderer or to do anything for Isamu. As it was lunch break not a lot of people were around. Most of the usual customers of the food stalls had already been gone when it happened. These three academy students were around and I thought they might be our best source of information. Ox is questioning the shop owners and Frog has taken Isamu to the morgue." Bird reported to the suddenly serious Hokage.

"I see, good reasoning, Bird. Naruto, Kiba, Choji, I need as many details as you can remember. This is vital to find the culprit. This could be a very serious threat to the village." He told them.

Kiba began: "I think it was a beautiful woman in a blue cloak."

"No, it was a middle aged man with a black cloak." Choji said.

Akamaru barked. "Ah, Akamaru said that it was a white cloak." Kiba translated.

"Did you really see the culprit?" Bird asked.

"Naruto, what did you see?" The Hokage asked.

Naruto had his eyes closed and used a technique Jiraiya had taught him to replay the scene again. Now was not the time to pretend to be an idiot. This was a matter of the safety of the village. And the Hokage would be able to keep it quiet until he graduated in two weeks.

"It was impossible to see if it was a man or a woman. The height was about 1.70 meters, possible difference 3 centimeters more or less. Normal stature. The culprit was completely hidden by the cloak so no identifying features were seen. The cloak was dark grey like normal ANBU cloaks. Isamu Nakasawa was writing down some things in his notebook when he was approached by the culprit. He looked up and seemed to recognize the person, as his body slightly relaxed after seeing the face of the attacker.

"Then suddenly the cloaked person thrusted a kunai into Isamu's chest and disappeared with a body flicker. I ran to the victim, he held his hand over his heart, I think to grab the kunai, tried to tell me something, but he couldn't speak, then he died. All in all it was over in perhaps fifteen seconds."

Naruto opened his eyes again only to see the Hokage being impressed and Kiba scowling.

"What would an idiot and loser like you know, Naruto?" Kiba shouted, only to be interrupted by Bird, who was really impressed with this boy.

"Memory retention technique?" He asked Naruto.

Naruto nodded to the surprise of the Hokage.

"I think we can let Kiba Inuzuka and Choji Akimichi go. Naruto Uzumaki was the closest to the incident and with him being able to use this technique he can tell us all we need to know." Bird said.

"You are right, Bird;. Kiba, Choji, thank you for your help and cooperation. We will take this from here on. Naruto, please stay."

The two boys and one dog left the room after bowing to the Hokage and closed the door.

"Get Ibiki here." The Hokage told Bird, who nodded and vanished.

"You are really surprising me, Naruto. Where did you learn that technique? I know it was taken out of the academy lessons after the war." The Hokage asked.

"Stupid decision if you ask me, old man. This technique is really useful, especially in the field. Sometimes you need to recall the way a fight went to gain more information on your enemy if he got away. It helps you the next time around."

"I agree, but this didn't answer my question."

"You do know that there is a certain pervert working for this village who is a spymaster? When I met him a few years ago, he introduced himself to me as a super pervert by the way; he took interest in training me somewhat when he was around. This is one of the techniques he taught me."

"You have met Jiraiya?" The Hokage asked surprised.

"Yes, stumbled over him, when I walked by the hot springs one day and caught him spying at the women's bath. I blackmailed him into training me. He first didn't want to, but when I said, I would rat him out to the women, he agreed. "

"That sounds like him. What else did he tell you?" The Hokage feared, that Jiraiya might have told Naruto who his parents were.

"Nothing really important, but it was nice to have somebody to help me train for a change. The senseis at the academy don't like me and often ignore me or tell me wrong things. I don't know why, old man; I didn't do anything to make them hate me. It was so from the beginning, though it got better with Iruka sensei after half a year, but the others didn't change."

The Hokage was saddened but also relieved. The boy didn't know about his parents but it was so wrong that he had to suffer for the burden he carried. If only the people would look at him as a boy and not the fox.

Naruto mentally congratulated himself. This way the Hokage wouldn't find out that he already knew who his parents were. Well, Jiraiya hadn't told him; he had found out by himself. But he didn't need to know this yet. The face of the Hokage showed that he was really sorry how the villagers treated Naruto. But as long as he hadn't graduated, he couldn't really do much about his situation. Then a cloud of smoke appeared in the office and the head of Konoha's T & I department Ibiki Morino appeared.

"You called for me, Hokage Sama?" He asked.

Naruto knew about this man, even if he hadn't met him before. No shinobi in the village didn't know about the so called sadist in interrogation. This man was able to screw around with the minds of his victims until they slipped up and he could get the needed information from them. If that didn't work, well he could resort to physical torture. This man was feared in the elemental countries.

"Yes, Ibiki. Naruto here was witness to the murder of Isamu Nakasawa and has already told me and Bird the things he knows using the memory retention technique. Before you ask, he met Jiraiya and blackmailed him into training him and this is one thing he learned from him." The Hokage explained.

"Was Jiraiya Sama peeping again?" Ibiki asked, masking his being impressed with a boy so young knowing this technique.

"He really is a pervert." Naruto said indignantly. "Yes, he was. I threatened him to rat him out to the women in the hot springs and he reluctantly agreed to help me."

"What else did he teach you?" Ibiki asked interested.

Contrary to most of the villagers he could see potential in this boy. A boy who was able to sneak into the Inuzuka compound undetected to spike the dog food with energy powder, which led to the dogs running wild for two days, had to have some abilities. And at that time Naruto had been eight. They had assembled nearly all chunin in the village that were free at the time and they only got him after chasing him around for three hours. Additionally his chasers had been totally humiliated to not catch him before. They had been caught in different prank traps and only the coincidental appearance of Kakashi Hatake had enabled them to get the boy.

When Naruto was nine, they had needed jonin to hunt him down, the chunin were too slow for him. He had managed to tar and feather the merchant guild's leaders, probably they had massively overcharged or denied him service again. Ibiki knew that the most elaborate pranks Naruto did were retaliation for unfair treatment towards him. Now they needed ANBU to catch him, if they could even prove that it had been him. Mostly they only could say who else would dare to do the things that happened. And the only two people who regularly could catch Naruto were Kakashi, who mostly wasn't willing to do so or three hours too late and Iruka for some strange reason.

No, this was not a boy who didn't have potential.

"Tree walking, water walking, leaf balancing, kunai throwing." Naruto counted on his fingers.

"Tree walking and water walking are exercises that genin normally learn, Naruto." The Hokage interrupted.

"And? The children of the clans are taught them before that point in time, so why shouldn't I learn it? I had problems learning the academy techniques and the pervert said I needed better chakra control. When I asked him how the hell I should do that, he showed me these exercises. It helped, but I still have problems because I somehow have a giant amount of chakra. Way more than the others in my class." He told them.

Both adults knew the reason for this, the Hokage better than Ibiki. Even alone, Kushina and Minato had enormous amounts of chakra and if you added the Kyubi their son had so much chakra, that it was logical that he needed higher level control exercises.

"Well, I would be glad to hear your report, Uzumaki." Ibiki said.

Naruto again retold the incident. Ibiki was impressed with the details the boy gave on the culprit and the behavior of the victim before the attack. He added additional questions, every little details could lead to finding the murderer. And an open attack inside the village was disturbing.

"Did you observe anything else on your way, something that was out of place or somebody who acted suspicious?" Ibiki asked.

Naruto again closed his eyes and went over the whole way from the academy to the crime site.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary. That is troubling. It could mean that we have a mole in Konoha." He said.

'I will have to observe this boy's development after the graduation exams. Perhaps I should be present then to have a firsthand point of view. This boy could be the necessary fresh blood we need in the ANBU. He could make a fantastic infiltration and information gathering specialist.' Ibiki thought.

"Thank you for your information, Naruto. Is there anything I can do for you? I mean I know seeing somebody die for the first time is hard." The Hokage said.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I have seen worse things than a clean murder."

The Hokage sighed. This child had suffered too much for his young age. Only during wartimes children like Naruto should be forced to experience such a hard life. And he had experienced it because the village consisted of idiots who could not see that this boy protected them all by his sacrifice. It just wasn't right

"Is it alright if I leave now? I have to train to get stronger if I want to get that hat of yours." He said grinning.

'A mask!' Ibiki realized. 'He is using a mask to prevent others from finding out his true abilities. This smile just now was completely fake. It normally takes a trained shinobi to pull such a perfect act off. How much do you hide from everybody, Naruto Uzumaki?'

"Yes, go ahead, Naruto." The Hokage said, dismissing the boy.

Naruto left the office. Ibiki looked at the Hokage.

"I want to be proctor for the academy graduation exam." He said bluntly.

"That is surprising, Ibiki. Would you tell me the reason? I admit Naruto has surprised me with his abilities, but I didn't think this show would warrant your interest."

"He is hiding more than it seems. His whole happy go lucky persona, which he shows to the village and the near failure results at the academy I have heard of, are a trick. A boy of twelve, who can lead jonin and ANBU on a three hour chase around the village, just using prank traps, only being caught by Kakashi, acknowledged as one of our best ninja, or Iruka, who I think is a sensor, who is able to get a sannin to train him more than once and able to stay calm after witnessing a murder is more than interesting for me. If I had to guess, I would say he plans on revealing everything during his exam.

"That is what I would do. Nobody can sabotage him after that. It would be too late as all ninjas are under the control of the Hokage, and you are one of the few persons to not try to screw him over. I have heard of the early attempts to hamper him by academy teachers. They have seemingly stopped, but I would guess they are just cleverer than before. If he had learned the things he needs on his own, or with a little help of Jiraiya Sama, he could stay at the bottom of his class until it really counts."

"Do you really think he would be that sly? It doesn't seem to fit his personality. I mean I see him fairly often and he never let anything slip in this direction. But perhaps somebody helped him to hide the signs that I would be able to spot. But it would have to be somebody who had more time for Naruto than Jiraiya. He just isn't in the village often enough."

"Well, I would like to prove my theory."

"Alright, you will be sitting in the exams as an observer. That will also allow me to ensure nobody tries to make it harder for Naruto if your suspicion is true."

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><p><strong>That's it for now. Please tell me what you think.<strong>


	3. Reminiscing the Past

**Sorry for the long wait. Finally I get toupdate a lot of my stories. So no long pre-writings. I don't own Naruto, Happy Reading.**

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><p><strong>Reminiscing The Past <strong>

Naruto meanwhile had taken the shortest route home, meaning he slipped into an alley and body flickered right in front of the iron gates of his family compound. He grinned remembering when he found the place when he was seven.

Flashback

It had been on his seventh birthday when he, again, had been looking for a hiding place from the drunken mobs. He was smart, really smart and had figured out how to sneak out of the village to be safe for the day. Knowing that the mobs would form when the day neared the evening and lots of sake had been consumed, he snuck out around noon. That would give him enough time to find a good hideout for the night in the forest. Last year he had avoided all the mobs and he intended to do so again this year.

After an hour of searching for a good place, he coincidentally stumbled over a hidden estate. It was a huge place judging from the surrounding walls. Only parts of the wall could really be seen, as vines had grown over most of them and trees and bushes hindered everybody from getting too close. Naruto thought it had to be as big as the Nara residence, where he had accompanied Shikamaru to one day because his friend wanted to show him where he lived.

Naruto recognized a seal of some sort at the gates. He thought hard, he had seen a seal like that in the 'Beginners guide for sealing' he had one day found in the old storage room he had to clean after a prank against a mean teacher. Well, none of the teachers had thought about the chance they gave Naruto with the job. He had taken the old outdated schoolbooks like the sealing book and taken them home with him. Concluding from the amount of dust on the books, nobody really checked that room, so nobody would find out that he now had functional books to learn from. Books he could understand. Not like those he had been given with hard to understand texts or those so dirty that he couldn't read anything.

The seal on the gate was a blood seal he remembered. So only people with the blood the seal was confirmed with could enter. Usually for an estate this would mean the blood of the family members. Naruto's mood dropped. The chance for him to be allowed in was zero. There had never been an Uzumaki clan in Konoha, it was a clan from the former whirlpool country, which was now no more. In Konoha he was just a nameless orphan. But he could try. Better to be 100 % sure than to doubt his decision afterwards. At least he would know for sure.

Naruto nicked his finger and put some of the blood on the seal. The seal glowed during the process. Then to his immense surprise, the gates opened for him. Naruto was stunned. This could only mean one thing. He was related to the owner of the estate. Excitedly he entered and the gates closed behind him. Now he was safe for sure. The blood seal would keep all attackers out of here. His curiosity was completely awoken now and he decided to explore this estate thoroughly. After all it belonged to his family and he had the chance to find out about them.

A garden that clearly had been abandoned for many years lay in front of him. Old trees were surrounded by long grass with patches of wildflowers. Old parts that seemed to have been cultivated with vegetable patches or flower patches at one time were mixed with wild plants. Naruto liked the wild look. Moving forward to the buildings farther back from the gates, he saw that a lot of animals seemed to have taken residence in the garden. When he reached the first building, he could identify it as a kind of dojo. Some training posts were on one side of a training hall, in a side room weapons were stored.

Next to the dojo was a big training field. It had a part completely build after a rocky field, another with a small stream that went into a small lake, wooded areas were around and also a small beach. Naruto really liked the prospect to get to train here in peace. He was often forbidden to use the village's training grounds by adults or had to go there at ridiculous times like ten in the evening. Really, he was just seven and had to sleep at that time.

The next building was a huge mansion. Contrary to a lot of the clan compounds, which were mostly built in the traditional Japanese style, this mansion had a western design. Behind the mansion lay five more houses, which were significantly smaller, but would suffice for families with up to three children without a problem Naruto surmised.

The mansion's walls were white and Naruto wondered how they could be like this, when the compound had clearly been deserted for years. He went closer and found the answer. Seals.

"Must be the home of a seals expert, first the gates and now the walls of the mansion." Naruto mumbled.

He arrived at the front door of the mansion and found another blood seal. He put blood on the seal and again the door opened for him. Naruto gulped. Hopefully he could find out who his family was. He looked into a few rooms. He found a small bathroom directly next to the front door, a big kitchen with a connected storage room, the stocked foods surely had expired by now, the entrance to the basement, a guest room held in neutral colors, a study and a living room.

Naruto was most interested in the study and the living room. The study had many scrolls in it and in the living room were photos. He decided to start with the photos in the living room. On most of the photos was a blond boy with hair as messy and spiky as Naruto's own. The eye color of the boy also matched Naruto's. But his face was different. But the thought that Naruto was related to this boy was logical.

First there was a team photo. The boy stood next to two other kids, a girl with black hair, a chubby boy with small eyes, perhaps one of the Akimichis, and behind them a white haired man with long hair and red marks under his eyes. Then the same boy was older and wore a jonin vest. The white haired man was next to him, holding a bottle of sake and seemingly congratulating him, as both smiled brightly.

The next photo showed another team. This time the blond man stood behind another group of teenagers, a silver haired boy with a mask hiding his mouth, a black haired girl with purple marks on her cheeks and a black haired boy with huge goggles covering all of his eyes. The man seemed to try to get the two boys to behave for the picture. So it went on. The last two photos intrigued Naruto most. The first was the blond man with a beautiful red haired woman, who was obviously pregnant. Both smiled happily and the man hugged the woman.

The last was the man in the same robes old man Hokage always wore, with the woman from the picture before, the white haired man, the old man Hokage and a brown haired man with white eyes.

"No way!" Naruto said. "This is the house of the Yondaime Hokage. Why does he look so much like me? Am I related to him? But if I am related to him, why do the villagers treat me like shit?"

Naruto decided to search in the study. Perhaps he could find out more there. It could be possible he thought after calming down a bit on the way to the study. There had been some members of the Namikaze clan, but the last members died during the Kyubi attack. And old man Hokage had told him his parents had died in the attack. Many small clans, who had suffered losses in the third shinobi world war, had gone extinct after the demon fox had attacked. The same bastard fox that was sealed inside of him. He opened the door to the study and was impressed how many scrolls and books there were. It was kind of messy. Probably the Yondaime had searched until his death to find a way to defeat the fox and found the seal that now was on his stomach.

Naruto didn't hate him. He knew he didn't have a choice. From what they taught in history at the academy the fox had suddenly appeared. There was little time to evaluate all possible ways to stop it before it could destroy the village. It was sealing the fox in a young child, best a newborn, at the cost of his life or letting the fox destroy the village. He would have done the same. While he disliked many of the villagers, he loved the village.

Naruto's eyes fell onto a scroll that had his name on it.

"How is this here?" He asked himself.

But if this scroll was for him, he could read it. He opened the blood seal and wanted to start reading, when a cloud of smoke suddenly came from the scroll and then he heard coughing.

"Damn, I hate this summoning technique." A voice said.

Naruto looked startled. What the hell had happened? The smoke disappeared and he didn't believe his eyes. Two steps away from him stood the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto began shaking. How was this possible? How could he be here? He was dead. The Yondaime looked around and his eyes fell on Naruto. They immediately became soft and Naruto could see love in them. The love he had always wished for when he had seen other children with their parents.

"Hello, Naruto." The Yondaime said kindly.

"How, how do you know my name? Why are you here? I thought you were dead, they teach that at the academy." Naruto was babbling.

The Yondaime just crossed the distance between the two, knelt down and pulled Naruto into a hug.

"I know your name, because I gave it to you. I am here, because I hoped I could tell you some important things in person even after my death and you are right, I am dead. Just before I died, I produced a shadow clone of myself, sealed it into this scroll and sent it away with my special jutsu. I don't know what you have already been told about your family, but I am your father, Naruto. Well to be precise a shadow clone of your father, but who cares."

"You are my dad?" Naruto asked surprised.

"Yes, I am." He answered.

Naruto hugged his father back. He finally knew who his father was. And he had done all he could to have the chance to speak with him. Tears rolled silently from Naruto's eyes down his cheeks.

"Why did I have to grow up alone? I understand that you died to save the village, but what happened to Mum? Weren't there friends of you who could have taken me in?" Naruto asked.

The Yondaime clenched his fist. This was not what he had wanted for his son. Where the hell was Jiraiya? He should have raised his son for him. What was Sarutobi up to? Was he still alive? Why had nobody helped his son?

"Naruto, I don't know why nobody raised you until now; your mum and I had named Jiraiya of the sannin, my old sensei, your godfather. He should have been there for you. Or my old student Kakashi Hatake. Is Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime, still alive? He was one of the few, who knew who you are. But believe me, your mother Kushina and I loved you from the moment we found out, that Kushina was pregnant with you."

"Really? You loved me?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Of course we did. You are our son, the child we looked forward to get to know for eight months. We had everything prepared for your birth. Sadly we couldn't enjoy it, as the Kyubi was freed the same day."

"Freed? How? I know that you sealed it into me to save the village, but where was it before? And yes old man Sandaime Hokage is alive and is the Hokage at the moment. Will you stay with me?"

As many children Naruto had the talent to bombard his father with many questions, that not all the time were really connected, but spilled from his mouth as he thought of them.

Minato reacted by lifting Naruto from the floor and carrying him into the living room.

"I think it will be more comfortable if I answer your questions in the living room, Naruto." He said.

"Alright, Dad." Naruto answered, relishing in the feeling of being held by a parent for the first time in his life.

They reached the living room and Minato settled in an armchair with Naruto on his lap.

"To start with your last question, I can't stay with you more than three hours. That is the time the amount of chakra I have in me will allow me to stay. As I am not the real person, but a shadow clone, I know everything of my original, but don't have any lasting structure. Shadow clones are a special sort of clones, which are really useful. They require a lot of chakra to make, but I think you will be able to learn this jutsu early as you have inherited great chakra potential as well from your mother as from me. Adding the chakra of Kyubi you will probably very rarely run out of chakra and regenerate really quickly.

"To answer your second question of the Kyubi's whereabouts, well it was sealed inside of your mum. She was the jinchuriki of Kyubi before you."

"Really? But how?"

"I will explain, Naruto. I would have preferred if you were a bit older, but we will have to make the best of this situation. You really have to tell me how you came to be here alone as I conclude that you were not shown the compound by anybody. Well, Kushina, your mum, came to Konoha to become the new Jinchuriki of Kyubi when she was a child. The previous Jinchuriki, Mito Senju, the wife of the Shodai Hokage, was getting old and Konoha needed somebody to take over the duty of keeping Kyubi imprisoned.

"Well, as Mito was born an Uzumaki, Konoha asked the leader of Uzushiogakure to help them and they sent Kushina. You must know the Uzumakis had a special chakra that allowed them to live longer than normal people and gave them other special abilities. Your mother could create chains of chakra that could hold the Kyubi. Mito Sama trained Kushina to be prepared to take over her duty for a few years until she had the abilities to succeed in imprisoning the fox. Your seal is a bit different from your mother's seal. It will allow you to be isolated from the fox for some years until you are ready to begin training to control his chakra. This will not be before you are fourteen or so.

"The only time an established seal of a jinchuriki is weakened is during childbirth if the jinchuriki is female, so we took every precaution we knew about to ensure your birth was going to be without trouble. We prepared a cave outside Konoha and it was under the strongest seals I knew of. While your mother went through labor, I was stabilizing the seal. It was working well and finally you were born, I was never as happy as in the moment I first saw you.

"Then the problems started. An enemy had somehow managed to get past the seals without us noticing and killed the ANBU who were protecting the cave, as well as Biwako Sarutobi, the Sandaime's wife, who was the midwife during your birth. He had you and demanded that I left your mother's side or he would kill you. I managed to rescue you but I had to leave your mother's side for a short time and he kidnapped her.

"I got you to a safe house and then went to rescue your mother, but I was too late to prevent him pulling the Kyubi out of her. I managed to prevent Kyubi killing her and brought her to you. Then I went stopping the man who had been the cause of all the problems and the freed Kyubi. The Kyubi had been summoned to Konoha and ran amok. The Sandaime, I believe, led the troops that tried to stop the fox, while I took care to break the control of the man over Kyubi. I was successful. I only know he had one sharingan eye, so I have the suspicion he could be Madara Uchiha, who lost against the Shodai at the Valley of the End.

"How he can be alive I don't know. Well, in the end, to prevent that this man achieved his goals, that somehow include the Kyubi, I split Kyubi's chakra and sealed the light chakra of the fox in you, while I sealed the dark inside myself and let it be taken with my soul into the stomach of the Shinigami."

"Wow, that is incredible." Naruto said amazed.

"Yes, I wish things had gone different, that we could have been with you, but the extraction of Kyubi was the reason your mother was dying and I had sold my soul to be able to seal the fox. So, tell me, Naruto, how comes you are here without an adult to show you the place? You have to know about sealing to get through the gates and the front door of the mansion." Minato asked.

Naruto hung his head. Minato feared things were worse for his son, than he thought.

"Today is the anniversary of your victory over the Kyubi and all of Konoha is celebrating the victory while mourning the fallen. As I am the Jinchuriki of Kyubi and the villagers are unable to see the difference between me and the fox, they blame me for all their sorrow and treat me like a leper. Normally the Sandaime's law prevents any physical harm to me, but on October 10th, they get so drunk, they start forming mobs by sunset. I prefer being far away from them as I don't like being beaten.

"I know from last year that they normally don't find me, when I hide in the forest, so I went there again, looking for a good hideout and, what can I say, I seem to have found the perfect hideout." Naruto said sarcastically.

Minato did the only thing he could do and pulled Naruto deeper in an embrace.

"Oh, Naruto, I'm so sorry. I never wanted for you to be seen as an outcast. I thought the villagers would be smart enough to see past the Kyubi once the immediate grief had passed. I don't know why they even know that you are a Jinchuriki, something like that should be kept a secret like it was with Kushina. Only those close to her and the Hokage knew about it."

"It's just so hard, Dad. It's my birthday and I have to hide away. Nobody but the old man and the Ichirakus even think about wishing me a happy birthday."

Naruto was now openly crying. Minato was rubbing his back in circles and spoke soothingly to his son. Damn it. How was it that Konoha, which was one of the most tolerant hidden villages, was tormenting his son this much? This was not what he had given his life for.

It took some time until Naruto had calmed down again. He never had had anybody to hold him while he cried in his sorrow so his father, even if he was only a clone and would vanish in some hours, was more he had ever hoped for.

"Better?" Minato asked kindly.

"Yes." Naruto said hoarsely.

"Good. How do you know about sealing?" He asked.

"I had found out that old schoolbooks were stored in a storage room of the academy when I had to clean the room as punishment for a prank. When I sneaked in there to get usable books for the things they teach, I came across a book about the basics of sealing and I took it with me. I can't do many seals yet, but I can recognize most of the normal ones and some special ones."

"I see. So they try to sabotage you. This won't go on. If they deny you the knowledge you rightfully deserve, I will tell you all the things you should learn to become the best ninja you can be. From what I heard, Sarutobi is trying to help you, but can't do that much against the behavior of the villagers. At least he manages to keep them from physically harming you. That will come in useful. You will have to learn on your own most of the time, but I know a jutsu, that will help you immensely in learning.

"It's the same jutsu that enabled me to leave a clone behind to meet you and tell you things about your family, the shadow clone jutsu. It is normally a jutsu only taught to jonin but with your immense chakra reserves, you won't have difficulties with it. When a shadow clone is dispelled the memories of the clone are transferred back to the original. So it is great for espionage as well as learning. It can't replace physical training, you will have to do that on your own, but it will give you an edge in learning some theory and chakra based things.

"Just don't go overboard with the jutsu. Too many returning memories can give you a headache you don't want to have, so dispel them in little groups. Believe me, I have experienced the backlash. And don't worry about the chakra cost, even without the Kyubi you would have enormous reserves. It's a family trait in the Namikaze, Uzumaki and Senju clans."

"Senju? I understand Namikaze and Uzumaki as that were yours and Mum's names if I understood everything correctly, but why Senju?" Naruto asked.

"You are related to the Senju clan both through your mother's side the Uzumaki clan, as the Senju and Uzumaki are distant cousins and through me as my grandfather was Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime Hokage." Minato explained.

"Wait, that would make me related to three Hokages!" Naruto shouted.

Minato grinned.

"Yes, son, you are practically Konoha royalty. All the more reason to show up those pricks that treat you wrong. They will have to get their hairs transplanted because they will pull them out when you show all your abilities at our graduation exams. Use the full time at the academy that is until you are twelve. Let them underestimate you and think of some disguise. A ninja's best weapon is deception. Remember that always. You won't have any problems to get information as the Namikaze clan had a very big library on jutsus, martial arts, history, strategy… all things related to ninja and politics you can think of."

Naruto just stared at his father.

The next hours Naruto and Minato spent with Minato telling Naruto about his family, about his mother specially, Minato writing down a schedule for Naruto to train in the next years and at last the shadow clone jutsu. When Naruto began to tire, Minato took him in his arms and carried him into the room Kushina and he had prepared for Naruto before everything had gone to hell. The Minato clone knew he didn't have much time left, so he tucked his son in and kissed his forehead.

"Good night, my son. Happy birthday. I love you and your mum does too. We will always watch over you and are proud of you."

The smile on Naruto's face was all he needed to know he had given his son the most precious present he could. A family he belonged to.

Flashback end

Naruto had never returned to live in his shabby apartment. He had used the early hours of the next day to move all his things, as little as he had, to the Namikaze compound. As long as he regularly went to visit the Sandaime in his office, nobody bothered to check on him. It was an ideal solution. As only the Sandaime seemed to know who he really was, only he could have thought of him being at the Namikaze compound. And as he thought that Naruto didn't know where the estate was or that he was a Namikaze that was never a problem.

Everybody in the village believed him to be an idiot. He let them believe it, because a stupid demon was less of a danger than a smart one and they tended to bother him less. What really angered him was their worship of that ass Sasuke Uchiha after his clan had been murdered. Hey, he could understand that it was traumatizing for the boy to have seen his clansmen murdered. And by his own brother that is, but hell, he could just get over it and live on. It had been years ago. But what did the stupid villagers do? Put the brat on an ego trip by shoving things at him without him ever earning anything, making political decisions that favored him, give him presents and all that because his last name was Uchiha. Last of a clan with a powerful bloodline.

If anybody would research the Uzumaki clan they would be surprised, that their special chakra was more powerful than the Uchiha's sharingan. But he was the demon brat, why would anybody want to learn more about him? While he didn't have a bloodline from his father's side of the family, all Namikazes and Senjus had always had an abnormally strong affinity for water or wind. His great grandfather had even been able to pull water from the air. The Uchihas were just jutsu thieves. While there was nothing wrong to use the jutsus of enemies against them, it was so wrong to do it with allies. And the Uchiha had done that a lot.

Only two persons now knew of his newfound knowledge and he had met both of them by coincidence. The first one was his godfather Jiraiya. That had been an awkward meeting. The white haired pervert had been peeping at the hot springs at the women and if he had been discovered he would have been being beaten for it by furious Kunoichis. Naruto had recognized him immediately from the photos in his house. After a short talk, Jiraiya had grabbed Naruto and taken him out of the village to speak in private as he showed signs to be barely able not to explode on his godfather, Jiraiya told Naruto, that he hadn't been able to take him in because of his job as Konoha's spymaster. It would have been too dangerous.

He went to all kinds of places and the chance that some of Minato's old enemies were around were big. As a child Naruto would have been unable to protect himself and in a fight it was a handicap to have to look out for a child. It had been safer for Naruto to grow up in Konoha. And as there was a strong resemblance with Minato, Naruto would have been a prime target for assassination attempts.

After some time, Naruto forgave Jiraiya and got his godfather to help him train whenever he was in the village and to turn up at least twice a year.

The second one was his father's old student Kakashi.

* * *

><p>Flashback<p>

Naruto yawned. It was early in the morning but it was the best time of the day to get his groceries and other shopping done as most of the people weren't really awake at this hour. They were in the last hour of their night shifts and awaiting those who would take over for them at six o'clock. They mostly didn't even look who was shopping at this hour and Naruto made sure to change days so nobody would be warned if one did recognize him and overcharge him. 9 out of 10 times this strategy was working fine. Later in the day the shopkeepers would demand at least three times the amount from him if they even let him into the shop.

Too much hassle and waste of money for Naruto. While he had enough money from his inheritance, he mostly lived from the allowance he got as an orphan. He avoided suspicion this way. But the normal orphan allowance was more than enough to get him various and healthy products. Especially as Naruto had patched up the vegetable patches in the garden and grew some things himself, like salad, tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes and carrots. He also got apples from two trees that already grew in a corner of the compound. So for most of the year he had fresh or frozen vegetables which nobody could overcharge him on. The apples he stored in a dry shack like he had asked Teuchi once how to do it, disguising his interest as childish curiosity. He had decided early into his living at the estate, that he would only eat ramen at Ichirakus. Their ramen was just the best. And his dad had written a clear guide for what a growing boy should eat. He didn't want to disappoint his dad.

Today was a special day. It was his dad's birthday. He would visit his grave and bring some flowers. It was good luck, that the flower shop was owned by the Yamanka clan. Ninja clan owned businesses usually treated him better. Not nice but not hostile either. Well they perhaps thought it was better not to aggravate a demon container. They also didn't overcharge him. Naruto bought a few lilies and walked to the graveyard. Nobody was there. Good, he didn't want to be seen. Silently he laid the flowers under his father's tombstone and folded his hands to pray.

"Hello, Dad. Happy birthday." Naruto said quietly. "I hope you and Mum are well wherever you are. I miss you but I will be strong and protect the village you loved so much."

He bowed slightly. When he turned he suddenly looked at the shocked face of a young man with silver hair whose face was mostly hidden behind a mask and his headband. Only one eye was visible. Naruto was equally shocked. Did the man hear him? Did he see what he did?

"You are alive." The man said.

"Huh?" Naruto responded confused.

"I was told you died shortly after you were born."

"You know who I am?" Naruto asked surprised.

"How could I not? And judging by your actions and words you also know. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I was your father's student."

Now Naruto remembered him. He was on the photo of his dad's genin team in the living room. Well Kakashi had been a chunin at the time but none the less. And his father had told him about his students. They had lost Obito in the fight at the Kannabi Bridge where he had given his newly awakened sharingan eye to Kakashi after Obito had been fatally wounded. Rin had died shortly before the Kyubi attacked on a mission which had been mislabeled by the client. They had thought it was a C rank but had been an A rank. Rin had managed to get the genin to safety but had been hit by a lucky shot of the attackers.

"You really were my father's student?" He asked excitedly.

Here was somebody who could tell him more about his father. Somebody who was in Konoha regularly and not only for a few days a year like Jiraiya.

"Could you tell me more about him? I only know so much. As I don't want to worry old man Hokage that I know, I can't ask him and Jiraiya my godfather is out of Konoha most of the time."

"Of course, Naruto." Kakashi answered with an eye smile.

Flashback end

After this he told Kakashi everything. From the behavior of the villagers, of the treatment he got at the academy, his training, his father's shadow clone, what he had found out about his family and his fears. Kakashi offered him to help with his training and his studies. Naruto accepted gratefully.

Today he had training with Jiraiya. He was in the village for a week and Naruto usually made great progress when he got training from his godfather. After all, the man was a sannin for a good reason. Jiraiya was waiting on the training field.

"You are late, Naruto." Jiraiya stated.

"Yes, sorry about that. I witnessed a murder and had to report to grandpa. By the way, as the case indicated a danger for the village I revealed that you have trained me from time to time. I had to use the memory retention technique."

"I see, what else have you told him?"

"Not much, only your help in the chakra control techniques."

"Are you okay? Do you want to talk about what you have witnessed?"

"I am okay. You made sure of it with your training. It was a clean death by kunai in the heart. Not a lot of blood. Your genjutsus were much more disturbing. And you know that I had my first kill a year ago when my brother took me with him on that C rank mission."

Jiraiya nodded. He and Kakashi had taken Naruto's training really serious. As the boy had too many enemies, especially with the new information Jiraiya had got about that mercenary group Akatsuki that was after great sources of chakra as it seemed, it was vital that Naruto was prepared when he took missions out of the village with his soon to be genin team. Whenever Kakashi asked for a relaxing C rank mission to go on alone, or so he at least told the mission office, he took Naruto with him. It was best to get experience during training.

"Are you prepared for the graduation exams?" Jiraiya asked.

"Of course I am. I could have taken them two years ago and still aced them. But Dad said it would be most beneficial for me to use all the training time I could get while being at the academy. It also helped with keeping my mask. If I had applied for early graduation, I would have got more attention than I liked. And as you told me my chances to pass the real genin test are much higher with this year's class as there are many clan heirs.

"Everybody thinks I am the dead last as I purposefully fluked all the nice rigged written tests Mizuki likes to give me as well as the normal ones Iruka gives out. Really Mizuki must think I wouldn't see the manipulations. I think he is up to something. And I couldn't make a normal clone if my life depended on it. I just have too much chakra and Fluffy's chakra tends to overload it completely. Believe me. Maimed, dead clones are a depressing sight."

Jiraiya grinned sympathetically.

"But I can't change that and I intend to present the proctors with either shadow clones or water clones. Thankfully they don't require the mastery of water manipulation. And from the test you gave me, we know that I inherited both the wind and water affinities of my parents. So at least water techniques come easier to me. I am really looking forward to showing up Sasuke in the graduation exams and taking his Rookie of the Year spot. Oh how the fan girls will wail. I can't believe how dumb they are in their blind following of that asshole."

"Language, Naruto." Jiraiya admonished grinning.

"As if you hold back when you get in a row while cursing Orochimaru. At least I know I won't be paired with him. They pair the Rookie of the Year with the dead last, idiotic if you ask me, that will never build a good working team except if they have been friends before being put into a team. The top rookie will feel held back and the dead last will be frustrated. The thinking that the top rookie will motivate the dead last to better himself is rubbish."

"I know and I have told sensei so many times, but he is old and fixed in his traditional ways."

"Then why don't you take his offer to become his successor? You are more than qualified to be Hokage and the village would be better off with a younger Hokage than the old man."

"You know my reasons. I don't like politics and I have to maintain my spy network. I am the only spymaster the village has and until I have trained my successor it would be no good if I became Hokage. Also, who would want a pervert like me as the Hokage?"

"Isn't Itachi ready to take over? I mean he is your most valuable spy in Akatsuki. And during his missions with the other members he can maintain his cover."

"He could be ready but I don't want to risk his position in the organization yet. It is too important. And by the way, the one sannin who would make a real good Hokage is Tsunade. She was raised in the family of a Hokage, knows the ins and outs of the job and has the heritage to impress those in power. While I am well known for my power, I lack the political connections. No, she would be the better Hokage. Of course I would support her in everything."

"Nice evasion. Well, I think she could be good if she were in Konoha. What do you think? If I went after her after graduation to get her back here to start a medical program like you told me she wanted to start in the past, would she come? I mean, I am her only living relative."

"It could be possible, Naruto. It merits to speak with sensei after your graduation. By the way, do you intend to reveal your true name then?"

"Yes, I do. I will take the test as Naruto Namikaze. It's time that the village gets the shock of its life. While the deception of being an idiot has served me well, it is time to reveal my true self. They will regret to not have looked underneath the underneath." Naruto said grinning.

During his training Jiraiya and Kakashi, who had moved in with Naruto as his big brother figure, had drilled into Naruto that the best weapon of a ninja is deception and to always look underneath the underneath.

"What will we train in today?" Naruto asked.

Did you finish the last step of the rasengan?"

Instead of answering Naruto formed the famous technique his father had developed in his right hand.

"I can do it, but I still have to perfect the time it takes to build it up. I want to get it down to at most two seconds. Otherwise it is hard to use in real combat. It took me two weeks to get the third step down and another to reduce the time to form it to five seconds." He told his godfather proudly.

"Good job, Naruto. You got it much faster than I thought you would. We can start something new now. You have already mastered your first affinity wind. I will show you how to master your second one, water."

Naruto was excited.

"We will use your normal training method. We can't guarantee that you won't meet ninjas from Iwa when you leave Konoha for missions, so you have to become as strong as you can."

"Yes, sensei" Naruto answered changing into student mode.

The normal method was Kakashi's idea. After Naruto had learned shadow clones from his father's scroll with the help of Kakashi, they discovered Naruto's ability to produce great numbers of them and hold them for hours on end. Fully taking advantage of the abilities of the clones Naruto's training went great and he got stronger in leaps and bounds. Naruto was easily overall high chunin level by now with low to middle jonin level in ninjutsu and fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. Only his physical limitations stopped the full jonin rank and Naruto had to admit he sucked at genjutsu. He was not able to use the subtle art very well because he had that much chakra. But he could dispel them without problem.


	4. Investigation

**Investigation**

The Hokage sat in this office and studied the reports. Another ninja had been murdered, in the dead of the night without witnesses. But the victim, chunin Takato Shinaro had been stabbed with a kunai in his heart the same way Isamu had died. This had method and meant a severe problem with the village security. If two ninjas could be murdered this easily inside of Konoha, they had to act immediately.

He needed to put a specialist team on the case, but the problem was he was short on options. While the number of ninjas in Konoha had stabilized after the Kyubi attack, they just reached numbers which allowed to maintain village security and enable them to do the incoming missions. Normally putting some on this case would be possible but they had a highly delicate political marriage coming up. They couldn't take away the guards involved in that event or they could face war.

He took out the list of active ninja he had in the village and their current missions.

"I think I have to give this case to him. He has the experience and is not involved in the marriage security detail. But who to fill the team with? I can't spare any other jonins or chunins. Then my only options are genins or academy students of the last class. They will graduate in twelve days. That will not be a problem if I take out those who are guaranteed to pass."

He looked at the class list and the standing.

"From this list I would take those two and him, even if he is at the bottom of the class." The Hokage decided.

He looked over the genin list and frowned.

"Not really a good selection. Most of them don't have the necessary abilities for this investigation. I don't need combat ninjas but information gatherers. I should really push for more practical parts in this area at the academy. That is not good for the village. Besides the Aburames, the Yamanakas and some Hyugas we don't have good spies. We should do something there."

He pressed the button to call his secretary. Moments later the woman stood in the door.

"Yes, Hokage Sama?" She asked.

"I need Kakashi Hatake in my office in fifteen minutes. Tell him it is urgent and lateness not an option. A rank. Then I need Neji Hyuga, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara here in thirty minutes."

"I will send the calls out, Hokage Sama." She said and went to call the requested persons.

Fifteen minutes later Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage.

"Kakashi, you probably know about the two murders that have taken place. One was witnessed by Naruto and a few others, but our main source of information is Naruto. The other didn't have any witnesses and so we can only make guesses what happened there. You are to investigate the case with a team I am assigning you. Sadly with the upcoming marriage of Yumemi Hyuga and a noble from the land of Waterfall we don't have the resources of ninja I would normally assign to this sort of mission.

"So you get the best of the genin and academy students we have. I have already called them in. Here is the list."

The Sandaime gave Kakashi the list. He read it and wasn't pleased with the names.

"You don't seem to agree with my selection?" The Hokage asked.

"My apology, Hokage Sama, but I know two of them have massive problems to work in a team and for this kind of mission it is vital that they can work together to get the whole picture. While I fully agree to take Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara I can't see Neji Hyuga and especially Sasuke Uchiha being an asset to this investigation."

"Care to further explain this, Kakashi? From the academy reports I would have thought you would say something like this about Shino or doubt Shikamaru's qualification."

"I know for a fact that every Aburame is reserved and needs time to integrate in a team but then they are really valuable in information gathering and strategy planning with their logical minds and hive mentality. Shikamaru is highly intelligent but like his father Shikaku lazy as hell. If properly motivated his brains are invaluable to solve a criminal case. He can see connections others might overlook.

"Short of having Shikaku himself on the team his son is the best choice you could have made. Neji is too fixated on his own problems. He thinks the Hyuga are better than anybody else and has an unhealthy fixation with fate. He could probably put that aside and work in a team, but he is more of a combat specialist. I would keep him only for his ability to use the byakugan to find hidden clues.

"Sasuke Uchiha is an absolutely spoiled brat, which is the fault of the villagers and the council. He never had to work for anything he wanted; he just gets it. While his standing in the class is top student overall and the boy is talented in the ninja arts, his mentality is a security risk. His only goal is getting stronger to kill Itachi. Why nobody has taken him out of the program until now is a mystery to me. We are not at war and an unstable ninja is a risk to his comrades. And a ninja who doesn't care for his comrades is lower than trash."

The Hokage was surprised. He had thought that Kakashi of all people would have a higher opinion of the last Uchiha. This didn't look well. He had intended to make the jonin the sensei for Sasuke Uchiha's genin team after graduation but with an opinion this strongly against the boy he asked himself if it would be a good choice.

"You will try to work with this team, Kakashi. If you feel that they are unable to get the investigation done, you have permission to throw those who are endangering the success of this mission out. But we have limited ninjas who can help you. Until after the wedding we can't give you more manpower."

"I understand. Am I allowed to ask others to help with this investigation if I am sure of their abilities and I can get them to work on this?"

"As long as they don't pose a security risk you may. I trust your decisions there."

"Thank you, Hokage Sama. When will I meet them?"

"They should be here in five minutes."

The Hokage looked interested at Kakashi. He didn't think that the masked jonin had so much information on the graduation class of the academy and some genin. Perhaps Gai had told him about Neji in one of his crazy challenges. But the academy students? Who could have told him about them? Because most adults praised the last Uchiha. And he hadn't seen any mental evaluation reports that showed the Uchiha as mentally unstable.

Before the Hokage could question Kakashi about it, it knocked at the door.

"Yes." The Hokage called.

The secretary was back.

"Hokage Sama, the other four you have called for are here." She announced.

"Thank you, Kasumi, send them in please." He said.

The four boys came into the office and stood there at attention.

"Thank you for coming this fast. We have a problem in the village and at the moment we don't have the resources to put chunin or jonin on this team. So you will have to do your best to fulfill this mission. As some of you have probably heard, there have been two murders in the village. Jonin Isamu Nakasawa and chunin Takato Shinaro. For the first murder we have a detailed report of eyewitness Naruto Uzumaki. For the second one we don't have a report other than that of the department of securing of evidence of the ANBU. Your job is to find the culprit. This is a matter of village security. As soon as we have more ninjas available after the wedding of Yumemi Hyuga, we will send you backup.

"Don't treat this mission lightly it is B ranked. The leader of the group is jonin Kakashi Hatake. You will obey his command. If he gives an order you follow. Anybody disturbing the investigation will face disciplinary measures. Understood?"

He looked at the boys. Shino looked stoic, like every Aburame, Shikamaru listened and seemed irritated but nonetheless he understood. Neji was equally stoic like Shino but Sasuke looked smug. Like he deserved this special mission. Perhaps Kakashi was right. Well, he had the power to dismiss any of the others if they didn't do their job.

"Good. In this case we need your intelligence. Use your brains to find the hidden connections between the victims if there are any. Find every little clue you can. Shikamaru, Shino and Sasuke you have been cleared from the academy for the duration of the investigation as your graduation is secured from what we know of your abilities. Neji, Gai has been informed about your new mission and will do missions with your other two teammates. Don't disappoint my trust in you."

"Yes, Hokage Sama" The four answered.

"Dismissed." The Hokage said and Kakashi lead them out of the room to an empty office in the tower.

"Alright, I don't like this situation but we have to work together to solve this case. Everybody will get part of the information that has already been collected by the ANBU teams. We have witness reports, the personal files of the victims, the report of the searching for evidence of both crime scenes, reports of the gate guards of the last years, practically everything potentially useful in this case.

"Each of you will take a file and start reading. I want first theories or clues in two hours. I know about you from talks with others. Neji you are last year's Rookie of the Year and a capable combat specialist from what I read in our file. A prodigy of the Hyuga clan. But your behavior towards others sucks. In an investigation teamwork is vital so see to it that you behave professionally.

"Shikamaru, you are lazy as hell and if you could you would spend the whole day cloud watching, much to the dismay of your mother. But you also are a genius and probably as smart as your father and can come up with amazing stuff if you are motivated. Make sure you are motivated in this investigation or I will make sure your mother will seem to you like a considerate and gentle woman."

Everybody knowing Yoshino Nara and her fiery temperament understood the underlying threat. Shikamaru just nodded.

"Shino, I don't know that much about you personally but I have heard that you display the best characteristics of the Aburame clan and are already somewhat trained at information gathering. Use your abilities for this case and we don't have any problems. Last, Sasuke."

How he wished he could wipe that arrogant smirk form the boy's face.

"Top student of your class. But like Neji you lack proper behavior towards your comrades and have a bad case of superiority complex. Just because you are an Uchiha, you don't stand above anybody as you haven't accomplished anything mentionable in your life yet. The only reason somebody is accepted in the ninja world is if he can prove his worth. Next problem is your avenger complex to kill your brother who killed your clan. Forget it. When the time is right you will be able to face Itachi but now you are not even a ninja so stop thinking the village owes you something or you will be out of this mission faster as you can say sharingan." Kakashi stated.

"You can't do that the council…" Sasuke said smirking.

"The council can do nothing in this case. This is a ninja mission and I have absolute authority over this team. My word is law. Hokage Sama put me in charge and you will obey or I will report that you are not suited to be a ninja in the first place. Ninjas obey their leader. Ninjas are soldiers for their village and it doesn't matter what personal agenda you have. The duty to the village comes first. If your goals happen to be accomplished while doing your duty all the better."

"I will kill my brother and nobody will stop me." Sasuke declared.

"Shut up! This is a mission and this is a chance for all of you. Use it. I will be back in two hours. I have one more member I want on this team and will give him the data we have. His brilliant mind will be a huge advantage to have."

"Who is he, captain?" Neji asked.

"He prefers to stay in the shadows. I can't say more at the moment. You don't have the security clearance."

Kakashi took one of the files with all the data and took of hoping he could get rid of the Uchiha soon.

* * *

><p>Kakashi arrived in front of the gated of the Namikaze estate. He put his blood on a new blood seal Naruto had installed to grant him entrance at all times. The gates opened and Kakashi went over to the training field he heard Naruto's voice from. He saw hundreds of Naruto's clones training to separate water from a towel and further hundreds trying to produce streams in the lake. Jiraiya stood next to this observing the boy.<p>

"Yo." Kakashi greeted.

"Oh hello, Kakashi." Jiraiya returned.

"Hey, big brother!" Naruto shouted and came over leaving his clones to proceed with the training.

"Hello, little brother, it seems your training in your second element is going well. Last time I checked you were still on the first step to water manipulation."

"Yes, Jiraiya sensei thought I was good enough to start the second step of producing streams of water in the lake but wants me to fine tune the water separation technique."

"How far do you think he is, Jiraiya Sama?" Kakashi asked.

"Fairly far. I think four more hours with his clones and he will have the second step down. Why do you ask?"

"I have got a new mission from Hokage Sama today. I have to investigate the murders of Isamu Nakasawa and Takato Shinaro. Problem is because of the wedding we don't have any spare chunin or jonin for the case so I am forced to take a genin and three academy students to work with."

"And now you want the brat to assist you with the case, I see. You know I normally don't let my students skip training even if in the brat's case his clones still do it." Jiraiya said.

"Yes, I know, but if you had seen my team you would understand me immediately."

"Let me guess, the council in its unmatched wisdom has decided to blow the bastards ego up some more and put him on the case while he is the worst possible candidate for an information gathering and strategic mission with his temper." Naruto said palming his face.

"I don't know if it was the council, Hokage Sama put the team together but considering that the council is influencing the academy to mark Sasuke very favorably, they could as well have put him on the team themselves. The others are Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame and Neji Hyuga."

"I'm very sorry for you, Kakashi. Only one of them is ready for the job without any problems and that is Shino. If you manage to motivate Shikamaru he will perform well as well. I don't know how Neji will work as he has foot long stick up his ass. He is one of the worst Hyuga we have in the village. And you have the spoiled bastard himself. You can only hope that Neji is professional enough due to him being a genin for almost a year already. If not, teamwork will be neigh impossible." Naruto explained.

"I can understand your dislike for Sasuke but how do you know Neji?" Jiraiya asked interested.

"Through Hinata." Naruto answered. "Neji is her cousin and he holds her responsible for the death of his father and belittles her for being weak and a failure. The treatment he gets from the majority of the main house family doesn't help his attitude either. The prick needs a good kick in the ass to get from his fate's bitch trip." Naruto stated.

"I see, but why didn't you tell me you had a little girlfriend?" Jiraiya teased.

Naruto blushed and his head dropped down.

"As if I would be allowed to court her or even be friends with her with my reputation. Remember, I am the village pariah. The Hyugas may not believe that I am the fox but none of them would allow that their heiress associates with someone who is ostracized by the whole village. I really like Hinata, she is the only girl in my class who isn't head over heels into the bastard and she was always nice to me. But she would be shunned if it was known that we were friends or even more. I invented my crush on the pink banshee as part of my mask to protect Hinata. She knows this and isn't upset about it. For the moment it has to suffice that we are friends in secret outside the classroom.

"I will be able to shed my mask at the graduation exams and then my reputation should start to get better. I will tell her my feeling after everything has calmed down."

Naruto's voice was full of grief. He regretted the necessity more than anything. At least he and Hinata had found ways to keep their friendship a secret. They often met after school at the compound and trained together. But Hinata didn't know about him being the Yondaime's son. That he kept a secret from her.

"I understand." Jiraiya said.

"Well, Naruto, would you help me?" Kakashi asked.

"Sure, bro. Do you have the details of the case for me?"

"Of course, everything is in this file. I told the others that you prefer to remain in the shadows. So you don't have to interact with them and can keep your secret."

"Thanks. I will tell you as soon as I have a first theory." Naruto took the file from Kakashi and went to a nice place under a tree. He made some more shadow clones and split the material and began to read.

* * *

><p>In the main house of the Hyuga clan Hiashi Hyuga looked over the preparations that were made for the wedding. Everything went well so far. The Hokage had ordered as many ninjas as possible to protect the guests. It would go well. Now to his problematic older daughter. She was disappointing. She lacked determination and talent in the art of juuken. Even her younger sister could beat her. The clan elders were becoming impatient and demanded him to decide which daughter should be the clan heiress.<p>

If Hinata just didn't inherit the personality of her mother. As heiress of the most prestigious clan in Konoha she couldn't be timid and shy. He tried to force her out of her shell but since her mother's death shortly after Hanabi's birth Hinata became even more afraid. Afraid to fail, afraid to stand proud like every Hyuga. But he really didn't want to mark any of his daughters with the caged bird seal.

No, he didn't want to repeat history and the hatred his own twin had developed towards the main house. A hatred his son Neji had inherited after Hizashi had been sacrificed to appease Kumo. No, the seal was destroying the clan. If Hinata would just have more backbone, she could probably unite the houses. She was the only member of the main house the branch house didn't outright hate. With the exception of his stubborn, thickheaded nephew Neji of course.

* * *

><p>Kakashi returned to his research team and found Neji and Sasuke exchanging subtle jabs against each other, Shino reading the last page of a report and Shikamaru sleeping on the table.<p>

'I'm going to regret having to work with them.' Kakashi thought.

"Report." He said loudly.

Everybody's eyes turned towards him. Shino kicked Shikamaru to wake him up. Shikamaru blinked.

"Troublesome." He said.

"Well?" Kakashi asked impatiently.

"We think there is a connection between the murders of Nakasawa and Shinaro." Shikamaru began. "Well, Shino and I believe this; those two just argued with each other after Sasuke started making not so subtle insults to Neji's clan. Before that Neji tried for professionalism."

Kakashi glared at the two.

"One more time and you will be kicked out of this mission. And I don't care for your social standing in the slightest." Kakashi threatened.

"You don't have the authority to do this. After all the Hokage put me on this team and the council will have you demoted of you don't do what I say." Sasuke said smugly.

"Is that so? If you really think so you can go now. I have told you I have the authority. And the Hokage is backing me in this. Go and don't come back. We in Konoha don't need selfish ninjas. And this will be considered as a black mark in your future career. I am one of the elite jonins of this village. I was trained by the fourth Hokage himself. I am one of the most feared ninjas out in this world. And you have just destroyed any chance to be trained in the use of your precious sharingan if it will ever awaken."

"Oh and why is that?" Sasuke asked slightly worried.

"Because I am the only remaining Shinobi in Konoha who has a sharingan. You are woefully bad informed, Sasuke Uchiha. My nickname out there is Copycat ninja. Why do you think that would be the case? Because an Uchiha, the best I ever knew, gifted me with his eye when he knew he was dying to help me protect our teammate in the third war."

Sasuke stayed but Kakashi's glare made him leave mumbling about the council.

"I want to apologize, Captain Kakashi. I know I should have kept my calm better when he insulted my clan." Neji said bowing.

"Accepted, Neji. Just do your job in the future."

"Understood."

"Good, now I have some good news. The one I wanted to have on the case has agreed to help us and is studying the material right now. I will get his opinion this evening so I want to know what you have found out until now."

"Yes." Shikamaru said "The two victims were members of a team tasked with the investigation of the death of a medic nin, Shuichi Rikoma. He was found in his apartment with a cut jugular. Everything looked like suicide. As we are ninja the investigation also followed the suspicion of murder but it turned out negative. The third member of this team was special jonin Anko Mitarashi under the leadership of jonin Kosuke Shikono. Shikono died during the last part of the investigation due to a sneaking poisoning he got on a mission ad none of the medics discovered on time.

"When Shikono suddenly felt the effects of the poison he ordered the other three to continue while he would go to the hospital. But he broke down on the way and when Mitarashi found him and stopped the investigation to take him to the hospital it was too late to rescue him."

"His son Shinji Shikono accused the rest of the team to be at fault for the death of his father. The case was closed and went into the archives as suicide. But now two members of the team were murdered and the probability that Anko will be the next victim is high." Neji said while Shino just nodded.

"Very good, I will find out what mission Anko is tasked with and contact her to get her protected. Even if I don't think she will be very cooperative." Kakashi sighed.

* * *

><p>Naruto in the meantime had come to the same conclusion as Kakashi's team at the tower about the probable next victim. But his thoughts already trailed on to another part of the riddle. Why had Shuichi Rikoma been murdered? The new murders eliminated the possibility of his death being suicide. But why would somebody want him dead? And why risk bringing attention to this fact by murdering two ninjas inside of Konoha? Murders inside the village walls were automatically followed by thorough investigations.<p>

If somebody had taken the steps to make the murder of Rikoma look like suicide why did he murder the investigation team? Where was the motive for this? He had to gain more than he lost by his actions.

Rikoma's files had been normal. He had been an average medic nin who fulfilled his duties at the hospital normally. No known enemies, he was only of chunin rank and medics didn't tend to get really famous for their abilities with enemy countries; Tsunade of the sannin being the exception.

He had had some problems with alcoholics but that happened when you worked as a ninja and it hadn't interfered with his duties so nobody really cared about that flaw.

Naruto left the compound under a transformation jutsu and began questioning some of the medics at the hospital about their dead colleague. He wasn't well liked but also wasn't hated. A passing by character. You knew his name, worked in some shifts together but that was it. Naruto got suspicious. Somebody like that could very well be a spy, which would explain why somebody would murder him.

He would have to investigate more on this thought to be sure. And Kakashi had to get him more information on the hospital staff and frequently incoming persons. If he really had been a spy he must have had a contact to get information outside. The ANBU would have spotted birds or the likes that didn't belong to the village. After all there was an impressive barrier around the village.


	5. In The Open

**Hi, I'm back. Did you miss me? I finally have a new computer and got my internet back to working. :)**

**So now I am going to continue my stories, so look forward to many updates of my stories in the next few days.**

**As Always I don't own Naruto. Now happy reading.**

* * *

><p><strong>In the open<strong>

The next morning at the academy Naruto was unusually quiet. He was pondering about the case and drawing lines of scenarios on scraps of paper then crossing them out again. He had long since perfected his techniques to turn out any noises the fangirls of the Uchiha were making, so he didn't even register the wailing of the girls that their Sasuke wasn't at school today. Naruto enjoyed his jerk free time. Kiba and Choji wondered where Shikamaru was, Shino's absence went mostly unnoticed so far.

Hinata arrived and took the seat next to Naruto. Since the trip to the Ninja Adventure Land they had sat next to each other. Naruto had asked her if she wanted. She had been really nice to him during the trip and he had seen a chance that she would be different than the other kids in the class who shunned him. He had been right and over the two years since the trip the two children had become friends. She was the only true friend his age Naruto had. And would become more as soon as he could manage to screw the civilian council over with revealing his true heritage, get Hiashi to finally take the power in the Hyuga clan back, and prove that he was not a scapegoat anymore.

Hinata was okay with keeping their friendship a secret for now. She knew of the hatred against Naruto but she ignored it for her own judgment. She could spend time with the boy she secretly admired for some years and for now it was enough. She wanted more but thought it would take time for Naruto to get comfortable with a true relationship. She had been told by older women in the clan that boys matured later than girls in this point.

"Good morning, Naruto." She greeted.

"Morning, Hinata." Naruto answered smiling. "Are you busy at home? I haven't seen you around often in the last days."

"Yes, I am. Father wants everything to be perfect for Yumemi's wedding."

"That's understandable. I mean the groom is the son of a Daimyo."

"I have to try on my new kimono tonight. And father is always stressing the importance that I don't bring shame upon the clan during the wedding. I'm so nervous. What if I make a mistake? I don't think I could live through the torture of training after something embarrassing happened."

"Don't worry too much. You will do well, I just know it. Just relax and don't think about failing, then you won't fail. You are one of the most graceful and polite persons I know. Just see it as another training session."

"But when all those people stare at me and I know the will, I just lose my nerves. I forget everything I normally know."

"Then think their heads are pumpkins." Naruto said, getting a stunned look on Hinata's face as reward.

"What you didn't know that trick? Man, what do they teach you during your lessons? Well, it is an old trick for actors who have problems with nerves. They imagine that all the people who look at them have pumpkins for heads. So they forget about being nervous and just do what they learned."

Hinata giggled. Naruto just always knew how to make her feel better.

"I still wished you could be there." She said.

"Hm, perhaps I could get grandpa or big brother to take me there." Naruto said winking.

"How would you do that?" She wanted to know.

"Oh, I don't know yet, but perhaps a good prank could earn me a punishment as a servant there or something like that."

Iruka arrived and Naruto blended out his voice and returned to the case. How could they prevent a murder of Anko? The kunoichi was very proud and let nobody treat her like she was weak. It reminded her too much of her old sensei Orochimaru. After the betrayal of her sensei she had worked very hard, after being cleared of the suspicion of being a spy for him, to regain trust and build a reputation as a professional.

It would be more than difficult to get her to cooperate. He could understand her very well. After all it had taken the assurance of his father that he could trust Kakashi and Jiraiya. If he hadn't known that the two would help him he would have mistrusted them in the beginning and probably he wouldn't be where he was right now. The next problem to solve would be to be present at the wedding for a good reason. As nobody could know that he was part of the investigation team for the murder case he needed a good excuse to be there but not to be suspicious. How could he manage that?

Anko Mitarashi was one of the guards for the wedding as Kakashi had told him this morning. So the only way to protect her without her realizing it would be to plant him in close proximity to her.

Next problem was that Kakashi had already thrown out Sasuke of the team and the whining bastard had run to the council and complained about it. It had taken the old man's direct order to keep out of ninja business and a harsh reprimand to get Kakashi room to do his job. How much he wished that his father would still be alive, then the council wouldn't dare to try undermining the authority of the Hokage. They had feared him. The team was now one member short, not a good position for an already difficult investigation. If he was the culprit and wanted to take out Anko he would act very soon; before the wedding was over and more manpower would be available.

The second period was over and the students had a short break to eat breakfast. Hinata and Naruto sat together in a corner of the playground. They were hidden by some bushes and could see the first years through the leaves. Among them Konohamaru Sarutobi and Hinata's little sister Hanabi Hyuga. After five minutes Naruto and Hinata became aware of some strangely behaving bugs. Naruto understood at once.

"You can come out, Shino." He said quietly.

"As observant as always, Naruto." Shino answered calmly stepping out from behind a tree outside the fence of the academy grounds.

"Why are you here, Shino? As far as I know you are part of the investigation team in the murder cases." Naruto asked.

"We need your help, Naruto." Shino stated. "As you correctly stated, I am part of the investigation team. Yesterday Captain Kakashi, the jonin who is tasked with leading the investigation, threw out Uchiha because he was unable to work efficiently with us as a team. Today the Hyuga clan demanded that Neji was pulled from the case to help with the wedding preparations. We were already short on manpower, but now it is impossible to get anywhere."

"Well, that means big brother owes me lunch. I won the bet. But now to the important things. Why do you want my help of all people, Shino?" Naruto asked.

"Because both Shikamaru and I know that you are hiding your true abilities. We made the same observations but it is up to you why you do this. It really doesn't matter. We just know that you would perfectly fit into the team."

"Damn and I thought only Hinata discovered my secret. I just hope you are the only ones who know. It would become unpleasant if the wrong people found out too soon." Naruto said sighing.

"If it relieves you, Shikamaru and I are the only ones who have figured it out and it were only slight slips on your part. I doubt any of the teachers are suspecting anything. The other students are oblivious to your secret. Why you ask? Because they are set on prejudices passed to them by their parents." Shino explained.

"Alright, Shino, I will help you. Hinata, if Iruka sensei asks where I am please tell him I suddenly disappeared during the break and you don't know where I went. He will just assume I am skipping class again or that I got sick. If we hadn't taijutsu training today I would leave a shadow clone to cover for me but it would dispel from one hit and as I know the pink menace she won't stop doing it if I only as much as look wrong. Please tell nobody that I am with Shino. You know the reason." Naruto said smiling to her.

"Of course, Naruto. I will do it. Good luck with solving the case." Hinata said with a light blush.

"Thank you. Let's go, Shino." Naruto said and jumped over the fence.

* * *

><p>The Sandaime Hokage was really surprised when he went to the room that was assigned to the investigation team. The first thing he noticed was that Naruto was discussing conclusions from the information the team had been given on the case with Shikamaru and Shino. And contrary to Naruto's normal behavior he was calm and concentrated. There was no trace of hyperactivity or foolishness. The second thing was, a group of four clones of Naruto were working on a board at the side of the room, arranging information to connect conclusions or tidbits of information to make sense of them all.<p>

"Your theory is very interesting, Naruto. How far did you come with the investigation on the medical staff?" Shikamaru asked.

"My shadow clones are halfway through all their files. They are drawing up regular schedules and meetings while they are doing that. As of now there were no outstanding events that would be connected to our case. But every shift that Shuichi had with any of the medical staff is documented. I also have some transformed clones question others about the behavior of Shuichi during his work there. I am going over his whole history since he was a child. There has to be a point where something was suspect." Naruto answered.

"You are able to use shadow clone jutsu, Naruto? Since when?" The Hokage asked surprised.

"Oh, hello, grandpa Hokage. I didn't see you coming in. Yes, I can do that jutsu, surprised?" Naruto asked grinning.

"You can say that. How did you learn it? It is a forbidden jutsu."

"Only because of the chakra cost and we both know that that isn't an issue for me. And I have been using the jutsu since I was seven."

"You didn't answer my other question, Naruto." The Hokage admonished him.

"Do you really need to know that now? It will only cause trouble with the council. Can't I tell you after I graduate? Then they can all cry as much as they want but it won't change anything." Naruto asked.

The Hokage had to admit it would happen if the council found out now that Naruto could do such a high ranking jutsu. But he also needed to know how Naruto got the jutsu to make sure there weren't more holes in their security. After all, that jutsu was in the forbidden scroll.

"Hokage Sama, I know how Naruto learned the jutsu and can confirm that there is nobody in our ranks to steal information and give it to Naruto to harm him." Kakashi said while entering the room with some new files and records. "It will all become clear once he graduated."

Kakashi turned to the boys.

"Did you have success?" He asked.

"Partly." Shikamaru replied. "Following Naruto's theory that Shuichi Rikoma might have been a spy, we built a net of connections with others inside and outside of the village as far as we could gather from the information we have already covered. His history isn't completely analyzed and until then we will have to do a lot of guesswork. But so far the spy theory looks like the most probable one."

"It's possible that he was working for someone higher up. He wasn't especially talented but he had access to all the medical files of the ninja of Konoha during his work. That could very well be valuable to our enemies." Naruto took over.

"Why do you think he could have been a spy, Naruto?" The Sandaime asked.

"It was the way he died and the new murders that have happened. The result of the investigation in the death of Shuichi Rikoma was suicide as the cut was the way like it would have been if a right handed person tried to cut his jugular, but if we look at this as a murder, the culprit would have been left handed."

Shino demonstrated the method with a pencil, using Shikamaru as the simulated victim.

"I know that the one who murdered Isamu Nakasawa was left handed as I saw the murder from close up. The murder of Takato Shinaro could have been both, there were no clues of the hand the murderer used. Furthermore, Rikoma didn't have any reason to commit suicide. There is no motive, which was the reason it had also been investigated for murder. With his low profile keeping, I suspect he was a spy but knew too much and therefore was killed to prevent him from talking. Maybe someone got suspicious and he was taken out before they got too close to him. With the reports on his alcoholism, there is a chance that he blabbed about something while being drunk and his superior found out.

"Probably the information that slipped wasn't that dangerous out of context but if he blabbed more often, he would be a security risk for his boss and shutting up the leak would then make sense." Naruto explained.

The Hokage was impressed. He never knew that Naruto was this smart. Ibiki had been right, the boy used a mask to hide his true abilities.

"A very good deduction, but tell me, why do you normally behave like an idiot?" The Hokage asked.

"Deception is a ninja's greatest tool, grandpa Hokage. Why do you think that only Shikamaru, Shino and Hinata have figured out that I am not an idiot until now? I have worn that mask for years." Naruto answered grinning.

Sarutobi cursed mentally. He knew those responsible for this; the members of the civilian part of the council.

"What are your true abilities, Naruto?" The Hokage asked.

"I want to keep that a secret until the graduation exams at the academy in twelve days. But then I will stop holding back my strength and intelligence and they will have to realize that their precious Uchiha isn't that special at all. And if Shino and Shikamaru would also stop holding back, we could really embarrass him." Naruto said grinning evilly.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru said fearing he would have to really work on the exam.

"I'm going to have a headache. The civilian council won't like that at all and shout murder." The Hokage said, pinching his nose.

"You should have put them into their place way earlier, grandpa. They inflated the bastard Sasuke's ego astronomically. He gets everything doing nothing for it, just because the civilians loved the Uchihas. He isn't even that talented compared to those we call geniuses in this village. Look at Itachi, Kakashi, the sannin and yourself. When all of them were his age, they were way better than he is. And being on top of our academy class isn't that hard."

"And why do you think that?" The Sandaime asked.

"Because the things we learn at the academy are too concentrated on the theory and not the practice." Shino answered.

"Troublesome, but they are right. The best indication for that is that Sakura Haruno is near the top of the kunoichis and she isn't suited to be a ninja. She is only book smart and has the basic abilities down. Her only favorable trait is her chakra control. She is physically weak, one of the worst Uchiha fangirls, and her chakra reserves are really small for someone who trained for years." Shikamaru listed.

The Hokage resolved to really inspect the things the academy taught nowadays.

"Back to the Uchiha, why did you let the whole village treat him like a prince? He doesn't have his sharingan yet, and from what I remember, most Uchiha had their sharingan at this point in their lives. At least those that could activate the eyes. The treatment the villagers gave him after the Uchiha massacre let him drift into a dangerous mentality. I know he got additional instruction from the senseis at the academy in the early years he was there. They probably hoped to be in his good graces later in his life.

"But how can he still be an academy student with all that additional instruction and training? He should at least be chunin by now if he was so special. You know that students that excel or ask for it can take the exams at ten years of age. But his clan's taijutsu sucks without his sharingan as the clan always depended on their eyes too much. The only decent Uchiha I knew was Itachi and even he cracked under the pressure of his clan; so in the end he eliminated them all in a single night, leaving Sasuke mentally damaged, which nobody saw fit to correct when there was still time to do so. Not that I would miss any of those bastards." He added as an afterthought.

The Hokage was shocked. The boy he thought of as a second grandson, showed part of a personality he never had known about.

"I have to agree with Naruto's assessment of Sasuke. He is just too troublesome, more so than certain blonds." Shikamaru stated.

"Thank you very much." Naruto replied ironically. "By the way, Grandpa, could you arrange for me to be at the wedding tomorrow evening? If Anko refuses to be protected we could place unsuspicious guards around her. And I could check the security measures for you."

"You think you would find leaks when our best experts couldn't?" The Hokage asked skeptically.

"The same experts that think it is impossible to paint the whole break-room of ANBU headquarters neon green with neon yellow polka dots?" Naruto asked. "Or that it is impossible to paint the Hokage Monument in broad daylight wearing a kill-me orange jumpsuit? By the way, if I wanted to destroy the village it would have been way too easy. Imagine explosive tags instead of the paint and you get the picture."

Kakashi's head drooped.

"What's the matter, Captain Kakashi?" Shikamaru asked.

"If he really managed to do that I lost the bet and have to pay for his dinner tonight." Kakashi said morosely.

"Yes! Ichiraku Ramen here I come." Naruto proclaimed. "You should really know better than to bet against the king of pranksters, bro." Naruto pushed his hand into the air.

"Why do you call Captain Kakashi your brother, Naruto?" Shino asked.

Naruto froze. He had given himself away. That was supposed to stay secret until the graduation exams. The Sandaime's eyes widened.

"Do you know, Naruto?" He asked.

Naruto sighed. The game was up. Hopefully the Hokage could keep it secret from the council for the next few days. They just couldn't find out before the graduation exams.

"Yes, I do. I have known since I was seven. I found the estate on my birthday by coincidence." Naruto answered. "I know about my godfather and as you know I have already met him when he was in Konoha. He trained me every time he was here. I also found the message my father left for me in his study. I found the legal documents in the safe, like my parents' marriage certificate and my birth certificate. I guess you put it there after they died.

"I moved in at the estate the day after my birthday, keeping up appearances in the village to not tip anybody off. I developed strategies to train and hide my prowess with the help of the scrolls in my family's library."

He wasn't willing to reveal too much in front of Shikamaru and Shino. No, they were some of the few people to treat him normally and if they found out about Kyubi, which would come up…

"To complete the story, Hokage Sama…" Kakashi continued, knowing how much Naruto had hoped to keep this a secret, "…I met Naruto on his father's birthday when Naruto was seven early in the morning and he was paying his respects. I was really shocked as I was told Naruto died shortly after his birth, but it was impossible not to recognize him for me. And it was obvious he knew his heritage. So I introduced myself to him and took care of him from there on. I took over his training as the teachers at the academy saw fit to sabotage Naruto's training, except for Iruka, and coordinated the training with Jiraiya Sama when he was in the village.

"We decided to keep his true abilities a secret until this year's class graduates to prevent the civilian council from finding out. As they stick to their prejudiced opinion of Naruto, they would have sabotaged him even more if they thought he was more than a prankster and idiot. Only once Naruto becomes a ninja he is not under their jurisdiction anymore but yours."

Shino was observant though and already had a suspicion why Naruto was keeping so many secrets.

"Is the reason you hesitate to tell us more because of your strange chakra?" He asked. "My allies have informed me that you have a second, malevolent chakra in you."

Now Naruto looked ready to panic.

"You don't have to be spooked like that, Naruto." Shikamaru said. "Shino and I have a theory about this subject and won't think anything less about you if we are right. It's just too troublesome."

"What is your theory?" Naruto whispered.

"To be blunt, we think you are a jinchuriki, to be precise the jinchuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune. You were born on October 10th, the day the fox attacked, you have those whisker marks nobody else in the village has, nearly all the adult villagers hate you, and they call you names like monster, or demon. I found the term in one of my clan's scrolls and looked it up. If I am right and you are a jinchuriki, they are idiots who can't distinguish between a prison and the prisoner." Shikamaru said seriously.

Naruto began to tremble and sank to the ground, tears pouring from his eyes. Kakashi went over to him and pulled him into a hug.

"It's okay, little brother, it's okay." He calmly said, rubbing Naruto's back in small circles.

It had been a while since Naruto had broken down, but Kakashi and Jiraiya had waited for it for some time. All the emotional abuse the village had heaped onto his young shoulders had left deep scars in the blond. And as good as he was as a ninja, he was still only twelve years old and hadn't seen war.

"Hokage Sama, why is Naruto reacting this strongly?" Shino asked.

The Hokage smiled.

"One of Naruto's greatest fears was that if his friends, the few he had managed to find, found out about his burden they would hate and fear him like the villagers. While I tried to help him, Naruto was alone most of his life. To be sure that you accept his burden and don't hate him for it, broke a barrier he had created to shield himself against the pain he felt from the treatment he got by the villagers. Naruto wears a mask most of the time for two reasons, one to downplay his abilities to lull his enemies into a false sense of security, and two to protect himself from the loneliness. But with the cracking of the mask, the emotions he had bottled up over years come out now. It is for the best that he can let go of them now, while he is with friends. It isn't good to bottle up your emotions, it can damage you."

He looked seriously at the two boys.

"I am glad that you understand the difference between Naruto and the Kyubi, but I have to tell you that you are forbidden to tell anybody else about Naruto's burden. When I found out that the secret had somehow got out, I made a law that nobody was allowed to talk about the fox being sealed inside Naruto under the penalty of death. It is an S-rank secret of Konoha. I had hoped that with the younger generation being ignorant of the fox they would manage to befriend Naruto, but the parents found ways around the intention of the law. The only ones who can tell it are Naruto and I." The Sandaime explained.

"And it also keeps enemies of the village ignorant of us having the fox. I understand, Hokage Sama." Shikamaru added.

Finally after nearly an hour of crying, Naruto was too exhausted to get up and fell asleep in Kakashi's arms.

"It must have been hard for him to suppress those feelings, troublesome." Shikamaru analyzed.

"It was. Jiraiya and I tried our best to help him over his hurting, but we could only do so much. He didn't want to be seen as weak and always put up a mask of strength and indifference. He wanted to be strong to make his parents proud after he found out about them." Kakashi said, carrying his little brother over to a couch in the corner of the room and placing him on it.

"His parents? Who were they? I only know he was an orphan since he was an infant." Shikamaru asked.

"They died fighting the Kyubi on the day he was born. He only has photos and their journals to remember them." Kakashi stated.

"The identity of Naruto's parents is also an S-rank secret." The Hokage said.

"He will use his true name for the graduation exams, Hokage Sama; he is ready." Kakashi softly said.

"Are you absolutely sure about that, Kakashi? I wanted to wait until he was ready to become jonin. His parents made too many enemies to be taken lightly." The Hokage frowned.

"He is ready. His abilities, not including his physical strength, are already low to mid level jonin, with soon to be high jonin level in fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. He can manipulate two elements, wind and water, and only misses the jutsu library to go with them, as we don't have that many wind jutsus in Konoha."

"How the hell did you manage to keep abilities like that a secret?" Shikamaru asked impressed.

"We have an inaccessible estate at our disposal. An estate protected by so many layers of seals that none of the chakra used there can be noticed from the village. The only things Naruto needs to get to true jonin level are experience and his body needs to grow a bit more. But what he misses in physical strength he makes up in speed and cunning."

The Hokage nodded. It had been the same with Itachi. He had been ANBU captain at thirteen and was just stopped in getting physically stronger by his body's natural limitations. Limitations that would have naturally been taken care of once he grew up.

"Okay, but I want an oath from both of you to not reveal Naruto's parentage until the graduation exams. When I think about it, you two knowing it, will help him getting acknowledgement when he reveals it." The Hokage pondered.

Shino and Shikamaru nodded and swore the oath to not reveal Naruto's parentage until the day of the graduation exams.

"Very well, Naruto's true name is not Uzumaki, that was his mother's maiden name and a lot less suspicious than his father's name, Namikaze. Naruto's mother was the daughter of the leader of Konoha's sister village Uzushio, which was destroyed in the second shinobi war by Iwa and Kiri, as they feared the sealing abilities of the Uzumaki clan. Her name was Kushina Uzumaki. She came to Konoha when she was a girl, attended the ninja academy with Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze, and became a kunoichi of our village. She earned the nickname Red Hot Blooded Habanero. Minato was known all around as The Yellow Flash and later became my successor and the Yondaime Hokage."

Shino and Shikamaru were really surprised that their friend was the son of the Yondaime.

"Troublesome, we should have seen that, I mean, they have the same hair and eye color. I guess Naruto's face comes after his mother?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes, it does. I think it is one of the reasons not many people have made the connection between Minato and Naruto. And there are not many people left that were close to Kushina and even less that knew about the importance of Uzushio and the Uzumaki clan. The spiral on the chunin and jonin vests in Konoha is the symbol of the Uzumaki clan to represent the friendship between our two villages. The friendship comes from the distant relationship of the Uzumaki with the Senju, who were one of the two founding clans of Konoha.

"When the secret of Naruto being the jinchuriki somehow leaked out, I had to make a hard decision. I knew by revealing Naruto as Minato's son, I could probably stop the ostracism from the people, but the risk of Naruto being victim to countless assassination attempts from outside and inside the village would immensely grow. Normally I would have chosen the option of giving Naruto the life he deserved, but Konoha was severely weakened by the attack and I couldn't spare the manpower needed to prevent those attempts on Naruto's life. And my power was enough to prevent massive physical violence against Naruto."

"With a little display of fury from me and Itachi when we discovered one of the bolder plans to get rid of Naruto." Kakashi added.

"Yes, that was really helpful." The Hokage admitted.

"Uh, what happened, Captain Kakashi?" Shino asked.

"When Itachi Uchiha was still loyal to the village, before he killed his clan, we worked together in ANBU. We found out about a plan of a big group of 'demon haters' to attack and kill Naruto when he was six. We brutally invaded their hideout and killed them with extreme prejudice. The corpses were presented to the ninjas in the corps and the families of the offenders. We never had an organized attempt to undermine the Hokage's law in form of planned violence against Naruto ever after." Kakashi said detached.

Shino and Shikamaru paled a bit. To think it had been necessary to go that far with a group, but they logically understood it. The Hokage was the leader of the village and his word was law. Insubordination was punished harshly and attempting to kill and innocent child just for keeping the village safe, was sick.

"What is the reason Naruto calls you his big brother?" Shino asked.

"The Yondaime was my jonin sensei. He looked after me after my father died and taught me all he knew. When Kushina was pregnant with Naruto, it was somewhat logical that I would become a big brother figure for him. Sadly I thought Naruto died the day he was born with his parents. When I finally met him on his father's birthday when Naruto was seven, and I introduced myself to Naruto, he asked me if I could tell him stories about his father and mother. I did and soon he started calling me big brother. I called him my little brother and moved in with him at the estate. I always thought it ridiculous to let a child that age live on its own with no supervision."

Both academy students nodded. They silently resolved to stand by Naruto.


	6. Wedding Problems

**Hi, here is the next update for this story. Thanks to those that left reviews, even if I would love some more. From here on the story will get more action. **

**Happy reading.**

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><p><strong>Wedding Problems<strong>

The next evening all of Fire Countries high society was assembling at Konoha. The wedding of Yumemi Hyuga and Nabuo Pokinmi, the second son of the Daimyo of Waterfall Country, far at the east of the Elemental Nations, was the top event of the year. Obviously security was a big point in the preparations, so it was no surprise for the jonin in charge of it to be visited by the Sandaime.

Flashback

"You want to test the security around the building for the wedding? Certainly, Hokage Sama, but I am sure everything is perfectly working." Kasuo Nakamura said.

"I don't doubt you have taken all measures you could have thought of, Kasuo, but this wedding is too important for the whole of Fire Country to have any holes in the security. I want to be absolutely sure that nobody who doesn't come through the front door can get inside. I have an infiltration specialist ready to test your security. He just waits for my signal. He will try to infiltrate the building and attack the room where the wedding will take place. If he fails, I will be reassured."

"Of course, Hokage Sama. Let me put my team on alert." Kasuo said and activated his headset. "Every member of the security for the wedding listen up. We will have a test of our security measures by a specialist of Hokage Sama. Full alert from now on." He ordered. "You can get your man started Hokage Sama."

The Sandaime let his chakra flare massively, which was the signal he had agreed upon with Naruto.

"He will start now." He informed Kasuo.

They waited for an hour.

"It seems like everything is safe, Hokage Sama." Kasuo said slightly smug.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." Suddenly a young voice said.

Naruto sat relaxed in one of the armchairs in the lounge adjacent to the festivities room, a glass of cold juice with a straw in his hand, enjoying the drink immensely from the look on his face.

"How did you get in here?" Kasuo asked sneering.

"Easily. I have to say; if that is the best you have for a security system, it is way too easy to infiltrate. I only needed fifteen minutes to get into the room and another fifteen to place my little surprises. Then I went to the kitchen, put some nice little surprises into the drinks got myself some cooled orange juice and took my seat here and observed you for the remaining twenty minutes." Naruto reported, sipping his juice.

Kasuo ran into the room and searched for what Naruto had done. It wasn't obvious, but he had left hints for what his fake seal-tags were meant. If he had wanted he could have blown up the whole room, poisoned the guests or slaughtered them with seals that shot masses of shuriken onto his victims. All that was needed would be a chakra pulse, something nobody could stop in a building this big.

Then he continued to inspect the kitchens. Naruto had placed a bottle of every drink available for the celebration on the table, with a syringe next to it, telling the thing he had put into them. Naruto, if he had wanted to, could have poisoned the whole party at the wedding without anybody suspecting it before it was too late. Kasuo felt sick at the thought of it. The boy was only twelve and if this had been serious, it would have resulted in an international catastrophe. How the hell did he get inside so easily? They had been on full alert. He went back to the lounge where the Sandaime was waiting with Naruto.

"Well, Kasuo, don't you think it would be prudent to let Naruto point out the weaknesses of the security system to prevent anybody from using the openings he found?" The Sandaime asked politely.

"Yes, Hokage Sama, I am really interested how he managed to do it. He is just an academy student, and from what I heard, he is the dead last of his class."

"Appearances can be deceiving, Kasuo." Naruto wisely stated, finishing off his juice and hopping from his armchair.

"I came in through the ventilation system using a transformation. You need to bar the system against small animals. While not everybody has my ability to really transform, they could use trained animals to create an opening they can use. We are ninja after all. And it isn't that far fetched that somebody would do it. The easiest method would be to seal a corporeal clone into a storage seal, put it onto the back of a trained mouse, let the mouse go through the ventilation into the kitchen and trigger the seal. The clone could do what I did with the drinks easily. After everything was done, the clone would be dispelled and disaster will strike."

Both the Hokage and Kasuo were shocked how easily an assassin could have succeeded.

"And remember, I am not even a trained infiltration specialist, my whole experience in the field comes from playing pranks around the village. I am sure somebody trained in the art, would be even better than me. I just know how to sneak into places nobody wants me in, do what I came to do and get out without anybody knowing how I did it. The break room at ANBU headquarters is proof of my claim." Naruto stated proudly.

Many of the assembled ninjas that were called in after the Hokage announced that their security had been breached now looked at the child in front of them with a whole new perspective. It was true, this boy had been able to get into places that everybody thought impossible to sneak in continually and had managed to prank them repeatedly. How had nobody realized this talent? With the correct training he could become one of the best infiltration or assassination specialists the village had had in some time.

The whole point of those missions was to get in unnoticed, do the job and get out unnoticed. Quick, silent and deadly. A true ninja.

'I am sure once Ibiki hears of this, he will start the recruiting operation as soon as Naruto has his headband.' The Sandaime thought.

"Alright, Naruto, I am listening, tell me every weakness you have spotted in the system." Kasuo said, a notepad ready in his hand.

Naruto grinned and started explaining.

Flashback end

Naruto's involvement in the security measures was treated as an A-rank mission and therefore non of the people that would harm Naruto if they found out about his skill level would find out. Actually the Hokage had put an information embargo on the whole team to keep Naruto's abilities a secret. They readily agreed, after all it was embarrassing that a mere child was able to defeat what they thought were the best security precautions. The only one outside the security team that was made aware of Naruto, was Hiashi Hyuga.

Naruto's ideas to improve the security involved a massive increase of guards from the Hyuga clan. It wasn't a problem to get them included, as the wedding was a question of prestige for the Hyuga clan. Hiashi also had to give permission for Naruto to do pretended punishment as a waiter for the celebration. They told everybody it was for painting the Hokage Monument. Hiashi was impressed with Naruto's abilities to deceive the whole village about his abilities and would observe his career closely in the future. He had made it a habit to keep informed about the promising ninjas of the village.

Hiashi was no idiot. He knew very well, that Naruto had been sabotaged at the academy. But he hadn't known that he had found a way to still learn what he needed and more. If the way he disabled their security system, he had to admit even he didn't spot the weak spots when he had been shown the plans, was an indication, Naruto was at least high chunin level now in the areas of stealth, infiltration and trap building.

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><p>Hiashi, as head of the clan the bride belonged to, was greeting the noble guests in the lounge and members of the branch family were showing them their seats after taking the presents for the couple from the guests. He was proud to show off his beautiful daughters to the guests. While Hinata may be weak in fighting, she had managed to learn the fine art of etiquette around important people perfectly. She was graceful and respectful and he got many compliments about her. He had noticed that she had improved since she started the academy. While she still couldn't beat Hanabi in a spar, her skills with juuken were becoming acceptable.<p>

Perhaps he would change the focus of Hinata's training to politics during her clan training. The Hyuga were highly politically connected and this could be a way he had been looking for for years to prevent one of his daughters getting the caged bird seal. Hanabi, who was showing great promise in juuken, could become the symbol for the fighting strength of the Hyuga main family and Hinata the one to portray the political influence the clan had. Both his daughters looked lovely in their kimonos.

The wedding ceremony proceeded without trouble and soon the happy couple opened the buffet for their guests to enjoy. Hiashi was walking around, talking to a lot of them and watching things.

He could see Kakashi Hatake and his remaining investigation team of Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame watching over Anko Mitarashi. He had been witness to Kakashi's attempts to get Anko to accept protection from the serial killer, but the prideful kunoichi had refused. In another area he saw Asuma Sarutobi, the Sandaime's son, with the recently promoted jonin Kurenai Yuuhi, who had been Hinata's escort for a while. Ino Yamanaka talked with Hinata near the buffet. She was here with her parents, as she was the Yamanaka clan's heiress.

Choji Akimichi went over to talk to Shikamaru and Shino. Hiashi was grateful that Sasuke Uchiha wasn't present at the celebration. The Hokage had him do extra work as punishment for his blatantly disrespectful disobedience towards Kakashi. It was a good decision in Hiashi's opinion, as the boy needed to be put into his place urgently. He had watched the boy for years, the reports of the academy had him in the position of the best student in his class for years and with the civilian council singing his praises and putting him on a pedestal, the boy had grown an ego that was extremely dangerous.

Even a clan heir had to obey the orders of his superior. This was a ninja village and everything was built on the chain of command. Minor disobediences could sometimes be handled by the superior, if the inferior admitted his fault. But the arrogant Uchiha was used to the council doing everything he wanted and stopping anybody from punishing him for transgressions. Of course the civilian council had tried to intervene on the boy's behalf, again, but this time the Hokage had been adamant. Obviously he had been made aware of some things and was changing how things worked. About time.

The head of the hospital, Sakato Yakushi and his son Kabuto just greeted the Hokage. From what he was told, the boy was a medical prodigy but had always the worst luck in the chunin exams. He had had to forfeit before the last round every time for one reason or the other. His sight wandered and came to rest on the newly weds. They looked happy. Well, they took a liking to each other during a vacation which Yumemi spent in Waterfall Country two years ago. While the marriage could be seen as political, as it formed an alliance between Fire Country and Waterfall Country, the two spouses were in love with each other.

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><p>Hinata went to the bathroom. She was happy. Everything went well until now and Naruto was there. Alone his presence boosted her confidence and calmed her nerves. She could do this. She wouldn't fail tonight. She had heard the compliments many of the guests gave her father over her and she was proud to have accomplished that. She would show her father and Naruto that she would succeed tonight. When she left her cabin, she saw a woman with violet hair, tames in a spiky pigtail, standing at the sinks, washing her hands.<p>

"Oh, hello, you are Hiashi's daughter, right?" She asked.

Hinata bowed politely.

"Yes, my name is Hinata Hyuga, pleased to meet you." She answered.

"Oh, stop it, there is no reason to be this formal. I hate that crap. I'm Anko Mitarashi, one of the guards for the celebration."

Suddenly the light went out. Anko was alarmed. The electric shouldn't malfunction. They had even added additional safety nets, as Naruto had pointed out that weakness. How did the lights fail?

"Pff, electricity failure, I am so going to rub that in Koike's face. He was boasting that his technique was failsafe." She said, trying to distract Hinata from doing something stupid.

"I will go and see if I can find the reason for the blackout." Anko stated. "Wait here, Hinata."

Hinata noticed a small bit of light coming from the cupboard under the sink.

"Anko, there is a light under the sink, perhaps you could use it to find the cause of the blackout faster." She said, opening the cupboard and finding a flashlight.

"No, put the light out." Anko shouted, knowing this had to be a trap.

But it was too late, Anko noticed movement near the door and threw a kunai, which was deflected. Immediately Hinata turned the flashlight towards the door, but four small explosions combined with pained cried from Anko distracted her. The light went briefly over the attacker's face, but it was too fast to recognize him. The attacker threw something at Hinata, but she managed to evade it, only to be thrown towards the next wall by an explosion that went off behind her. The attacker seemed to realize he didn't have the time to remain there and fled. Hinata held her aching head and crawled over to Anko. She took the bleeding kunoichi in her arms and tried to speak to her. She saw the blood turning her hands red in the light of the still working flashlight.

"That's all my fault. It only happened because I found the flashlight. Why am I so weak? I should have used my byakugan to find the attacker and taken him out with juuken. It is my fault that Anko is injured." Hinata wept before she let out a loud, pained scream. She fainted next to Anko. Soon after the light returned.

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><p>Naruto and Kakashi, who had stayed close to Anko's position and knew she had just left the party to go to the bathroom, Asuma and Kurenai heard the explosions and ran to the bathroom. Then they heard Hinata's scream and soon after Kakashi pushed the door open, finding Anko lying in a puddle of her blood and Hinata next to her, equally covered in blood.<p>

"Anko, Hinata!" Kurenai shouted and dropped down on the floor next to her best friend checking her for life signals.

"Asuma, get a medic here at once." Kakashi barked, making the bearded jonin run to the party, knowing Sakato Yakushi was there.

"Hinata, please wake up." Naruto begged the unconscious girl.

He quickly checked her for injuries, but to his immense relief he didn't find any serious ones. Only a bruise on her head.

"She seems to not be severely injured, but Anko is really bad, Kakashi." Naruto informed his brother.

"I know, but I am no medic. We are lucky that Yakushi, the head of the hospital is here, he should be able to help her." Kakashi answered, trying to put pressure on the worst of Anko's bleeding wounds with a towel.

That moment Asuma returned with Sakato Yakushi, the Hokage and Hiashi Hyuga. Sakato immediately went to work and tried to heal as much damage as he could for Anko. Kurenai, who had helped Kakashi press a towel on another bleeding wound, had to be pulled aside by Asuma to give Sakato space to work. He needed ten minutes to stop the worst bleeding.

"I have stabilized her for a short time, she needs to be transferred to the hospital at once so we can do a more thorough surgery. I will send word to the hospital with my son Kabuto that they can prepare for it. Time is of the essence." Sakato said.

"Of course, do your best to save her." The Hokage said.

"Get Hinata there as soon as you can. While she doesn't seem to be really injured besides the bruise on her head, she needs to be examined for a concussion and the like. I think she could have hit her head on the wall or the basin during one of the explosions."

He pointed at the traces of explosives on the walls. Naruto was thinking hard. How did the culprit get explosives into the party? All entrances to the building had been watched. All the guests had been searched by Hyugas with the byakugan. He had them triple check the building for any suspicious substances he and them knew about. They even had the guards at the entrances confiscate any kind of paper and writing tools to prevent seal experts.

Sakato left the room, followed by Asuma and Kurenai, who carried the stretcher with Anko on it. Two branch Hyugas came in with a second stretcher for Hinata and followed the head of hospital. Naruto looked around the bathroom thoroughly.

"What's on your mind, Naruto?" The Hokage asked.

"I wonder how the culprit got the explosives into the building. The guards have thoroughly checked each guest and have confiscated anything that might have been used as a weapon from them. The building has been cleaned of anything we knew about that could be dangerous. We even replaced the potted plants for ANBU checked ones. The first aid kits were removed and the next one is in the neighbor building. We have the whole building under watch for chakra signatures. If Sakato would have used anything dangerous, the seals all over the building would have been activated to shut down any chakra usage.

"The hole in the wall indicates a short range thrown bomb of little strength. I think the problem was something else. We heard five explosions, so we can securely assume that Anko was hit with multiple bombs. So this wasn't a chakra attack. But I simply don't understand how any substance usable in this circumstances could have been brought in. Hiashi Sama put his best byakugan users onto the job. They wouldn't have overlooked something like that."

Naruto was deep in thought.

"We can't even have body searches of the guests as that would provoke diplomatic complications." Naruto hit the ground in frustration.

"I will have my men use their byakugan on the guests without them noticing. If anybody has any suspicious items with them, we will find them, but I somewhat doubt it." Hiashi said.

"Do that, Hiashi." The Hokage agreed and Hiashi left the room to inform his men of their new mission.

"What do you intend to do now, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "If you act openly now, the council will know you are up to something and put up a last minute effort to stop you. We originally intended to wait until your graduation exams for you to drop your mask. Until now only a few know of your abilities and they will keep quiet. But now the investigation team will be increased in numbers as the wedding is over and they will be motivated to find the one to hurt one of their team without them preventing it. And the exams are in ten days."

"I know. I will have to use my transformation abilities to take the position of someone nobody would suspect of being me. I think Neji Hyuga would be best. He was called away on clan business for the wedding. It wouldn't be suspect for him to return now. We just need to coordinate this with him." Naruto suggested.

"That can be done. Neji can be sent on a mission outside the village with his team. Nobody needs to know you are using his identity as your disguise except Hiashi. He can cover your back in the Hyuga clan." The Hokage agreed. "We need to inform Neji of this immediately."

"I will go and get him. I suggest changing locations to the office area. The ANBU will have to collect the evidence in the room anyway."

* * *

><p>Naruto left the bathroom, transforming into his form from the beginning of the wedding to hide the traces of blood on his clothes and started searching for Neji. He found him after five minutes in the celebration room. None of the guests were aware of the incident. It was important for Konoha and the Hyuga clan that everything appeared to be perfectly normal.<p>

"Neji Hyuga?" Naruto asked.

"Yes?" Neji answered.

"I have been sent to retrieve you by Hokage Sama. He awaits you in one of the offices. He wants to discuss something with you and Kakashi Hatake." Naruto informed Neji.

"Lead the way then." Neji replied and followed Naruto out of the room.

Soon both boys reached the office the Hokage had temporarily taken over to coordinate the investigation of the murder attempt on Anko.

"Ah, Naruto and Neji, good that you are here now. Please sit down, this will take some time." The Hokage said and pointed at two chairs in front of the desk.

Naruto and Neji nodded and sat down. Kakashi immediately placed a privacy jutsu around the room.

"Neji, as you are aware we are still trying to find the murderer of Isamu Nakasawa and Takato Shinaro. Now there was a possible third victim, Anko Mitarashi. She was attacked half an hour ago here at the bathroom. Hinata Hyuga was also drawn into the attack as she was in the bathroom at the same time. Both are at the hospital at the moment. The culprit used some kind of unknown explosives to injure Anko and he then tried to hit Hinata too, but was out of time we think because he disappeared quickly afterwards. Anko is severely injured and we don't know yet if she will survive. Hinata is only lightly injured as she wasn't the main target." The Hokage summarized.

Neji nodded. While he disliked his cousin, he could keep it in check for official business.

"I understand, Hokage Sama, do you want me to join the investigation team again, now that the wedding is over?" He asked.

"Not directly. You will leave Konoha for a mission with your team first thing tomorrow morning, but somebody else will take your place. This somebody is Naruto. Before you ask the reason why, especially as you probably know of Naruto's 'official' standing at the academy, let me explain some things. Naruto is an expert in information gathering and infiltration. He is also very skilled in stealth and ninjutsu. His marks at the academy are faked for reasons that are secret."

Neji thought hard.

"But why would you hold back your abilities? The placements of the teams would be thrown in disarray if you didn't show your true abilities at least to some degree." Neji asked.

"The reason is Neji that I don't have an easy time in the village for reasons that are not my fault. I play the idiot dead last to throw people of my back who are trying to sabotage my education. I use deception to such a degree that they all think I am no threat. The majority of the civilian population of the village hates me, the ninjas are mostly okay. They at least stay neutrally cautious until they had the chance to get to know me in person. The only reason they complain about me is when I do a prank on them, but that is part of my special training, which had to be disguised somehow." Naruto explained.

"Special training?" Neji asked skeptical but intrigued with the different personality of Naruto than the one he had been informed about.

"Infiltration, execution of a task, undetected leaving of highly secured areas, information gathering and sabotage without anybody noticing him, trap building and some others." Kakashi counted the parts down.

Neji's eyes widened. He could see the logic behind this.

"The idiotic behavior and the orange jumpsuit are part of a mask I created to train being undercover. And think of it as an additional level of difficulty in stealth training. If I can do my pranks in these clothes and not be detected, I can execute my missions even better without them." Naruto said.

"I understand. So you want to take over my position to not endanger your cover while being included in the investigation team?" Neji deducted.

"Yes, for now only Hokage Sama, Hiashi Sama, Shikamaru, Shino and Kakashi know about my involvement. Hiashi Sama was involved to keep the Hyuga clan from saying anything about any possible inconsistency that might come up. I know enough about your normal habits to impersonate you as long as I don't have to work with people close to you, but as your teammates will be with you on the mission and your clan will keep it secret we have that covered."

Naruto breathed in deeply.

"I think you can understand the problems of some higher ups trying to interfere with your training. And they tried to sabotage my training more severely than your clan ever did yours. You at least got professional training in your clan arts from a young age even if the idiots deny the branch family some of their most powerful techniques. I find it ridiculous to keep the bodyguards weaker than those they have to protect." Naruto commented.

"How do you know that?" Neji asked carefully.

"Hinata told me and before you start ranting about the unfairness of how the main family treats the branch family, and criticize her, she is not at fault for the hardships of your life. I know of your father's sacrifice. I know the whole story and I am really sorry for your loss. But answer me one question: Can you with all your abilities as the prodigy of the Hyuga clan, defeat a jonin right now?" Naruto asked.

"No, of course not. I am just a genin, a skilled one, but no where the level of a fully trained jonin." Neji answered.

"Then why do you blame Hinata for not being able to do it? She was kidnapped when she was three! And she was asleep, which the jonin probably reinforced with drugs. Now your uncle Hiashi stopped the kidnapper and killed him. Like any parent would do to protect their child. Why do you and all the others blame her for being weak? She isn't weak just different. From what I know she is more like her mother than her father, contrary to her sister Hanabi, who comes after her father."

Neji had a look of sudden enlightenment in his eyes.

"I don't want to tell you to like those who look down on you. I don't try to make you like the main family as a whole, but you should try to look at each person and their actions before you judge somebody. You would never have thought I was actually skilled enough to be involved in this investigation because I utilize my mask to prevent others from stopping me from learning all I want to know. What is stopping you? They don't train you in their techniques, but you still see them. Why don't you try to develop them on your own like your ancestors did? It is harder, but you could be truly proud be accomplishing it. And your sensei is a taijutsu master. He could give you pointers there.

"Hinata is my friend and I really wish for her to have it easier in her clan. Having you, an acknowledged genius, at her side to help her, would make her goal of abolishing the damn seal your clan uses more probable. And I know she wants to get her 'big brother' back. Just think about it. Hinata is the sweetest and nicest person I know. And she is stronger than you think. Please just think about it, Neji."

"I will, thank you for opening my eyes, Naruto. You are right, I can't like the main family as a whole, but perhaps blaming Hinata for everything was the wrong way to show my frustration." Neji admitted.

Naruto just smiled at the older boy.

"Alright, now that you are informed about the mission and why it is necessary, Neji, we should go to the hospital and see what the current situation of Anko and Hinata is." Kakashi said.

"I will return to the wedding celebration. It would be suspicious if I was missed." Neji said.

"You are right, Neji. Shadow Clone jutsu." Naruto said and made one clone. "The clone will go in my stead. If anything happens that we need to know immediately, tell my clone, I get all the memories if one of my clones dispels." Naruto explained.

"That's useful. Thank you, Naruto."

* * *

><p>At the hospital the three met Kurenai and Asuma who were waiting for news of Anko and Hinata. Ino, who had somehow found out about Hinata being injured, had followed them there and was now in Hinata's room sitting on a chair next to Hinata's bed.<p>

"What's the situation?" Kakashi asked.

"Anko is still in the emergency room. We don't have news yet. Hinata is still unconscious. Ino Yamanaka is looking after her. She said, she didn't want one of her nicer classmates to wake up alone if she could help." Asuma informed them.

"What I don't understand is how the culprit could hit Anko that precisely in the dark. While a skilled assassin could have felt her chakra and pinpointed her location, that would have taken more time than he had. Especially as Anko is a special jonin and knows to instinctively suppress her chakra." Kurenai pondered.

"The flashlight." Kakashi said. "It looks like Anko used the flashlight to get a better look in the dark room, perhaps she wanted to go look after getting the electricity back. The murderer oriented himself by the light."

"I don't think so." Naruto interrupted. "I think depending on Anko coincidentally having a flashlight with her would be too much of a gamble. No, I suspect the flashlight has already been there in the room, turned on. With the sudden change in lights, Anko could have become interested of the cause of the light she somewhere saw, probably the cupboard under the basin and investigated. When the cupboard was opened, she made herself a target for a short period of time and the assassin used that to his advantage."

Kurenai and Asuma looked at Naruto with surprise in their eyes, while the Hokage nodded thoughtfully. The two had never thought Naruto would be able to deduct that well. Just when they wanted to ask more questions, Shino and Shikamaru arrived.

"Neji informed us about what had happened. How are Anko and Hinata?" Shikamaru asked.

"Hinata is still unconscious but not severely injured. Anko is still in surgery." Kakashi informed his team.

That moment an ANBU with a bear mask appeared.

"Hokage Sama, this is the report of the investigation on site. We didn't find any fingerprints or chakra signatures except for Anko Mitarashi and Hinata Hyuga." He reported and handed a scroll to the Hokage.

"And on the flashlight?" Kakashi asked.

"Only those of Hinata Hyuga."

The assembled people were surprised.

"Then Hinata was the one to find the flashlight and had taken it out of its hiding place. It would explain how she became a target." Kakashi pondered.

Suddenly Ino came running towards them.

"Kurenai, Asuma, oh Hokage Sama and Kakashi are here too. The situation of Hinata is worse than we thought." She reported. "We need a medic."

Asuma nodded and went to get one. The others except for Shino and Shikamaru, who stayed in front of the emergency room to get new information on Anko when the medics were finished with her surgery, quickly followed Ino to Hinata's room. A nurse was present and bowed to the Hokage. Hinata sat in her bed and looked at the group with dull eyes.

"Hinata." Naruto addressed her.

"Who are you?" Hinata asked shocking everybody.

'No, please no.' Naruto thought desperately.

"Do you remember me, Hinata?" Kurenai asked. "I am Kurenai Yuuhi, your escort to school."

Hinata shook her head.

"No, I don't remember anything." She told them.

Asuma arrived with a medic; Kabuto Yakushi, the son of the head of hospital.

"All the other medics are helping my father with the surgery of Anko Mitarashi." Kabuto explained. "I will do my best to help."

Kabuto took a seat next to Hinata's bed.

"Hello, Hinata, my name is Kabuto Yakushi and I want you to answer some questions for me. Is that okay with you?" He asked.

Hinata nodded.

"What's your name?"

"I don't know." Hinata answered.

"How old are you?"

"I don't know."

"Who is the ruler of Fire Country?"

"That's the Daimyo."

"What is your father's name?"

Hinata shook her head.

"What is the name of Fire Country's hidden ninja village?"

"Konoha."

"Please demonstrate how to write the kanji for 'woman'." He said and handed her paper and a pen.

Hinata showed how to write the kanji.

"Are you a ninja?"

"I can't remember."

* * *

><p><strong>And evil cliffhanger jutsu ! I know I am mean, but you will have to find out the diagnose till next time ;)<strong>


	7. Diagnosis

**Hi, now it's time for this story's update again. Thanks to those that left reviews, even if I would love to get more of them. Perhaps with this chapter. **

**I don't own Naruto (shame that ;))**

**Happy reading.**

* * *

><p><strong>Diagnosis<strong>

In Kabuto's office Kurenai, Asuma, Naruto, Kakashi and the in the meantime arrived Hiashi were waiting for the verdict Kabuto had made. The Sandaime had returned to his office at the Hokage Tower to put more ninjas on the case, now that the wedding was over. The guests from outside had been kept ignorant of the attack, that was all the positive about it. The discreet searches from the Hyuga hadn't turned up anything new.

"Kabuto, please tell me what happened to my daughter?" Hiashi asked.

"Well, it looks like partial amnesia. She can't remember things related to her personal life or people she knows, but she knows general things like the ruler of Fire Country and how to write kanji. She didn't recognize her escort Kurenai or her classmate Naruto. I am not sure how long this will take. She can't remember being a ninja, but it could be that she retained the memory how to do jutsus learned at the academy and the juuken. We would have to test that later when she is a bit more mentally stable. But for the moment I would guess she doesn't remember the juuken at least, as it is very closely connected to her personal life." Kabuto informed them.

"That is a catastrophe. If the clan elders find out, they will call for her being sealed again." Hiashi said downtrodden.

"Then Hinata has to regain her memories." Naruto stated. "Kabuto, can't you medics do anything for her?"

"I'm afraid not. Perhaps Tsunade would know how to help her, she is the best medic there is, but nobody knows where she is and finding one of the sannin if they don't want to be found is nearly impossible. And Tsunade had stated in the past she didn't want to return to the village ever again." Kabuto pondered. "Our best chance would probably be a mind specialist of the Yamanaka clan. But there is a high possibility that Hinata can regain her memories if she can totally relax in the time to come. Most cases of amnesia are temporary as they were caused by shock. Once the level of adrenaline goes down, many remember again."

Kabuto looked at a report on his table. He accidentally knocked a pen from the desk and caught it in his left hand. He opened the file with the report with his right after putting the pen away.

"If I understand this right, then the shock was caused by her seeing Anko Mitarashi being attacked with explosives. Something must have happened to have her suppress the memory. She is subconsciously protecting herself. It would be best if you didn't force her to remember anything, it could be disastrous. The damage could become permanent. The mind is a delicate affair, which is the reason it is so difficult to treat." Kabuto instructed. "I have to go and look after some other patients. With most of the medics being in surgery, we are a bit short on manpower. If something happens, just call for me."

"Yes, thank you, Kabuto." Hiashi said.

Kabuto left the office and Kakashi put a privacy jutsu up just to be safe.

"I think for Hinata to relax it would be best if she was in a familiar environment. Perhaps some memories will return when she can go back home." Asuma suggested.

"Bad idea, Asuma." Naruto contradicted. "Normally you would be right in your assumption, but you heard Hiashi Sama. The clan elders would use the opportunity to place the caged bird seal on Hinata. And the normal treatment she gets there is not the right environment for her to relax."

"What do you want to say?" Hiashi asked threateningly.

"I think you know very well." Naruto replied not even slightly intimidated. "Since the death of her mother Hinata was put under severe pressure. Never could she meet the ridiculously high expectations you and your clan have for the heiress. And instead of helping her to overcome the problems, you just put more pressure on her. Excuse me, but I don't think calling a naturally timid and shy girl weak and a failure gets you positive results. That might work on a stubborn child that won't back down for anything just to prove you wrong, but not with those who are intimidated by adults.

"Additionally Hinata had just lost her mother, the most important person in her life, the one who was her role model. She was simply lost and didn't know what to do and instead of giving her direction which she could have used to rebuild her life with, you turned to ridicule. Your clan called her a failure and a disgrace. You destroyed any confidence she had. Worse, you let it go on for years. A child believes what it is told. It is as simple as that. She was told she was weak and could never be strong enough to be heiress. She believed it and stopped trying to do her best, why should she? It wouldn't help her.

"She was only told her shortcomings, but never received praise when she did something right. Do you even understand how much something like that hurts? Do you know how difficult it is to block out the insults and stop listening to them? Don't you see how much the cold eyes destroy one's soul? How difficult it is to get up again and go on when everybody tells you, you better should give up?" Naruto talked himself into a rage. "Your clan elders play dirty behind your back. They want to break Hinata whom they believe to be a threat to their traditions."

"That is a serious accusation. Do you have any proof of your words, Naruto?" Hiashi sneered.

"Nothing more than my word for what I coincidentally overheard when I was worried about Hinata not coming to the academy for days. I slipped past your guards when they had their byakugan deactivated and searched for Hinata's room. Then I heard two old main branch members speak about making the easily influenced Hanabi the heiress. They just needed to break Hinata's spirit completely. It had to be prevented that the branch house was given more rights." Naruto reported.

Hiashi was furious. If that was true, there were more things going wrong in his clan than he had known about.

"The problem is Hinata never wins any of her fights in juuken." Hiashi explained.

"How could she?" Naruto countered. "The only opponents she gets recently are her cousin Neji, who is a genius in juuken and one year Hinata's senior with real combat experience from his missions, her trainers or those the trainers call to be Hinata's sparring partners, all are at least high genin I might add, or her sister Hanabi. And Hanabi is the one person in your whole clan Hinata loves more than anything else. She promised she would protect Hanabi and she would never hurt her, not even in a sparring match. Hinata could easily win; she has massively improved in juuken during the last two years and gained much confidence.

"She is ranked second best for the kunoichis in out class, but only because the academy ranking places too much importance on book smarts. That is the one area Sakura Haruno is excelling at; otherwise the pink banshee is a poor excuse for a ninja. In all other areas Hinata is a lot better. And those areas are the ones that make the difference between life and death in the field. Did you even read her reports?" Naruto asked.

Hiashi had to admit he didn't. After it became clear that Hinata wasn't worth his time, he had concentrated on Hanabi, who had great talent in the Hyuga taijutsu style. Hinata had been taught by other clan members. But how could Naruto of all people know so much about his daughter that he didn't?

"How do you know so much, Naruto?" He asked.

"That's easy; I am Hinata's best friend. We sit together in the academy and train together after the academy is over in secret. Due to my reputation we kept our friendship a secret to avoid that the villagers directed their stupid hatred against me at Hinata too. At the moment I have no possibility to prove them that I am not my prisoner and because of the civilian council trying to sabotage me every chance they get, I have to wait until I graduate before I openly show my true self." Naruto explained.

"You know about your prisoner? Since when?" Hiashi asked surprised.

Kurenai and Asuma were equally shocked.

"I have known since before my seventh birthday when I found out something about me that I cannot tell yet. Don't worry; everything will become clear on the day of the academy graduation exams." Naruto answered.

"I understand, but now we have to find a good solution what to do about Hinata. If the elders tried to force her through the usual kind of training, she will never get her memories back. I would suggest for her to live with Kurenai for the time being, but I know you have a mission starting tomorrow." Kakashi said.

"That's true and even if I was here, I'm afraid the elders could try getting to Hinata in an unexpected moment." Kurenai added.

"So we need a place where she can relax, is outside of any influence the Hyuga elders might use and has the company of someone she knows well enough that her memories might be jogged." Asuma summed it up.

"Damn it all. If only Minato was still alive. We could have hidden Hinata at his estate and nobody would be able to attack her. The Namikaze estate is completely impossible to enter without invitation from the owner. Minato and Kushina made sure of it. With Minato's smarts and the fuinjutsu he learned from Kushina you would have to be insane to try and break in there. He only described some of his earlier ideas for security seals to me, but they were enough to give me nightmares." Hiashi cursed, for the first time loosing his cool demeanor.

"What do you exactly mean, Hiashi Sama?" Kurenai asked. "I never heard anything about you being close to Yondaime Sama?"

"That's a common miscalculation. Minato and I were on different teams and were rivals of the highest degree. But he was also my best friend. We pushed each other to get one up the other, it was one of the reasons we were both promoted so fast. When we were both jonin we swore an oath to help each other in dire situations. It's a shame he died in the Kyubi attack. He and Kushina were looking forward to being parents so much. And then the damned fox attacked and killed off the whole family." Hiashi said.

Naruto's eyes widened. They had sworn an oath to help each other? That was serious business. It bound both their clans to it. Obviously Kakashi also understood it at once and took action. He knocked Asuma and Kurenai out with two quick hits to the neck.

"Sorry, Asuma and Kurenai. But this is too important to be messed up." Kakashi apologized to the two now unconscious jonin.

"What is the meaning of this Kakashi?" Hiashi asked.

Naruto was already forming the handseals for the strongest privacy jutsu he knew. One of the original Uzumaki jutsus, which were kept at the Namikaze library. Where Kakashi's privacy bubble was blue in color, Naruto's was violet and hummed with power.

"Well done, Naruto. You have finally mastered the jutsu without using a medium." Kakashi praised him.

"Thanks, bro." Naruto replied.

"Brother?" Hiashi asked surprised. "Why does he call you that, Kakashi?"

"You are about to learn an S-rank secret, Hiashi Sama." Kakashi explained. "Do you remember Minato sensei's wife?"

"Of course, I was Minato's best man. How could I ever forget Kushina?" Hiashi replied.

"Do you remember her surname?" Kakashi asked again.

"Hm, let me think. Her surname was…no way!" He shouted out, concentrating on Naruto's features.

Naruto nodded.

"I am not dead. Old man Sandaime hid me in plain sight by giving me my mother's maiden name – Uzumaki. All to protect me from my father's enemies until I could protect myself. I found the Namikaze estate on my seventh birthday when I looked for a hiding place from the drunken mobs that always start on the Kyubi festival. I recognized the blood seal on the gates and curiously tried if I could enter and to my surprise the gates opened. In my father's study I found a scroll with my name on it and I opened it. From the scroll a shadow clone of Dad came out and he told me everything that happened that night and some other things about my family. He also apologized for making me a jinchuriki and having to leave me alone.

"I moved into the estate the next day, after all, why would I want to stay in the broken down apartment the council finally 'allowed' me to have, if I had a perfectly livable estate that was my own. As long as I regularly visited old man Sandaime, nobody looked closer. And it was a great change to having to fear being attacked in my sleep by demon haters. A few months later I met Jiraiya and on Dad's birthday I met big brother Kakashi at Dad's grave, where I went early in the morning to pay my respects. The two helped me to train since then and are the only ones besides me who can enter the estate. If it is okay for you to trust me, I would gladly let Hinata stay at my estate. I have enough space there and only Kakashi and I live there."

Hiashi thought about it. There was no other place more secure than the Namikaze estate in Konoha. And if Kakashi was also living there, he could be sure that nothing inappropriate would happen.

"I agree, for that seems to be the best solution. But I want that Kakashi ensures that you don't do anything inappropriate, Naruto."

Naruto blushed heavily.

"Hey, as if I would use Hinata's amnesia to do something like that. She is way too important for me to take advantage of her like that." Naruto protested. "And I don't follow my perverted godfather's ways."

He pouted with his arms crossed over his chest. Hiashi slightly smiled. Naruto was really his parents' son. Minato's looks and Kushina's temper. And obviously both of their talent.

* * *

><p>Hiashi left and Naruto wanted to look after Hinata before he left the hospital. When he arrived at her room, he found Ino still sitting next to Hinata's bed. Hinata was asleep. Ino looked extremely subdued.<p>

"Hey, Ino." Naruto called her with a low voice.

"Naruto? What are you still doing here?" Ino asked.

"I wanted to visit Hinata before I go home. Why are you still here? I didn't know you two were close." Naruto asked back.

"Well, we are not really. But since Sakura and I ended our friendship over Sasuke, I sometimes talked with Hinata. She listened to my problems and tried to help me, even if she is shy, she is a nice person. I want to be here for her now. She doesn't deserve to be in this situation. If I can do anything to help her recover, I will. She would do the same for me." Ino told Naruto her reasons.

"That's nice of you. I am sure Hinata will appreciate your efforts. Perhaps you should go home for now and return tomorrow when she is awake. I am pretty sure they gave Hinata something to sleep better, so you would only waste time while she is asleep." Naruto suggested.

"You're probably right. You are different than I thought you were, Naruto." Ino stated.

"How so?" He asked.

"I thought you were just an idiot who couldn't get anything right, but you seem to be smarter than I took you for." She answered.

"You never took the time to get to know me really, Ino. I had to act up to be seen. It is not that easy if the whole village is hell bent on ignoring or glaring at you." Naruto admitted.

"You are probably right. I never really thought about it. Well, I guess I should go home and come back tomorrow after the academy lets out. Will you be there?" She asked.

"I don't know yet. Depends on if I can get to see Hinata before. Otherwise I could just skip again. I am really worried about her."

"How do you plan to pass the exams like this?" Ino asked.

"I'm just that awesome." Naruto boasted playfully. "Don't worry, I will pass. I won't miss the chance to graduate with all of you." He said grinning. "Can't become Hokage if I don't, can I?"

"I just hope you know what you do, Naruto. Good night." Ino said, leaving the room.

"Good night, Ino."

When Ino was gone, Naruto took the seat next to Hinata's bed and took her hand.

"I promise you, Hinata, I will protect you. I will find the one responsible so you will be safe again. And I never go back on my word. That is my ninja way."

* * *

><p>The next day at school everybody talked about the wedding and some were wondering about Hinata's absence.<p>

"And Hinata really lost her memories?" Choji asked Ino.

"Yes. She can't remember anything about herself, the life she lived, even the people she should know, like Kurenai, her escort, her father, Naruto or me." Ino answered.

"Why was the loser there?" Kiba asked.

"He was there doing his punishment for painting the Hokage Monument." Choji explained.

"And when the attack happened, he was close, heard the noise and ran there with some others." Ino finished.

"Typical, losers attract each other." Sasuke snarled.

"Hey, what do you mean?" Choji asked enraged.

"That's easy. Hinata isn't worth her title as the heiress of her clan. She is far too weak. But what could be expected from someone of the Hyuga clan? That just proves the superiority of the Uchiha. And her being interested in the dead last further proves it. No girl who has some self-respect would even consider spending time with that no-clan failure." Sasuke sneered, looking at Naruto's normal seat, which was empty as it often was.

"Of course, you are absolutely right, Sasuke." Sakura cooed.

A lot of girls swooned around Sasuke, saying how cool he was. Ino was surprisingly quiet. Had Sasuke always been that nasty?

* * *

><p>Naruto was at the hospital. Hinata had awoken in the morning and if the last examination by Kabuto went well she could leave the hospital. Kakashi had informed the Hokage that Hinata would live with him and Naruto at the Namikaze estate until she got her memories back. They had prepared a guest room the day before so that Hinata could move in any time. Hiashi had sent a branch house member with some clothes for Hinata. Nobody in the Hyuga clan was told where Hinata would be staying. Hiashi told the clan elders it were security orders of the Hokage in case the murderer would target Hinata next.<p>

They were furious and as Hiashi had feared they demanded for Hanabi to be named heiress of the clan and Hinata to be sealed and put into the branch family. But he had refused their demand. Hinata would stay heiress until he deemed her unworthy of her title. He argued that the medics had hope that given some time Hinata's memories would recover.

Kabuto did some last tests on Hinata. Kakashi observed the entrances to the room together with Naruto, Shino and Shikamaru. Half an hour later Kabuto declared Hinata ready to leave the hospital. He called Kakashi in.

"Please make sure that she rests and relaxes, Kakashi. With time I hope she will be able to unlock her memories. Inoichi Yamanaka had the same opinion. He wasn't able to unlock her memories with one of his techniques. A deeper analysis would probably harm her mind. He advised to let her mind recover naturally." Kabuto informed him.

"I understand, thanks, Kabuto." Kakashi said.

He eye-smiled towards Hinata.

"Ready to go, Hinata?" He asked.

She nodded shyly and followed Kakashi out of the room. Kakashi led the group into another, empty room, which had been secured beforehand.

"Alright, I will body flicker Hinata out of here to keep the place she will be staying at a secret. You will go to our base at the Tower to inform our backup of the current state of the investigation." He told Shino and Shikamaru. "If anybody asks where she is, tell them the information is classified and even you aren't informed about it, so you can't be forced to give out that information. Only Hokage Sama, Hiashi Sama and I know where she will be."

Shino and Shikamaru nodded.

"Naruto, blindfold your eyes. You will accompany us, but not be informed about the location of the hideout." Kakashi instructed Naruto who took out a long scarf and wrapped it around his head.

Kakashi checked if Naruto really couldn't see anything and was satisfied with the results. This was a well-planned show for the one who probably would target Hinata. If she had possibly seen the attacker, he would do everything to take out the threat to himself. They wanted to decimate the points of attack. With only three high class ninjas being informed about Hinata's location, it would be hard to find out about it.

"I will return to the Tower once Hinata is settled in at the place. Inform Neji about the progress the investigation made during his absence. He will return to the team now that the wedding is over." Kakashi said.

"Understood, Captain Kakashi." Shino replied.

Kakashi laid his hands on Hinata and Naruto's shoulders and with a cloud of smoke and leafs they disappeared.

* * *

><p>They reappeared in front of the gates of the estate. Kakashi opened the gate through the blood seal and led both youths inside. He then told Naruto to drop the blindfold. Naruto unwrapped the scarf and looked at Hinata who was taking in the view.<p>

"Wow." Was all she said. "This is really big."

"Yes, it is." Naruto agreed. "Come on, I will show you your room and then around the estate. You would probably get lost the first time. That's what happened to me."

"But I thought you weren't here before, Naruto?" Hinata asked.

"That was just show, Hinata. We don't know who we can trust at the moment, so it is best to have as few people as possible in the know of your location. This is Naruto's and my home. There are certain reasons that nobody knows that Naruto and I live together. You were one of those persons, so it isn't a problem to tell you again." Kakashi explained.

"I'm so sorry that I can't remember." Hinata looked down.

Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. Nothing of this is your fault. You just were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody is angry with you. With time you will get your memories back. I'm sure about it." He smiled kindly.

"Thank you." Hinata answered.

Naruto led Hinata inside the main house and up to the first floor. He walked past a few doors until he stopped in front of the third one on the right side. He opened the door and let her enter. She looked around and was astonished. The room was light and inviting. The walls were painted in a dark yellow except for the white ceiling. A light blue carpet was on the floor. The furniture was made of cherry wood. A big bed, a table with two armchairs, a couch, a TV, some shelves with books on them, a closet and a wardrobe were placed there. Another door led into a small bathroom.

"It's nothing special, but I figured you would like to have your own bathroom. If you want to bath, there is a hot spring on the compound." Naruto said.

"I really like the room, Naruto, thank you." Hinata answered smiling.

"My pleasure." He replied.

He put Hinata's suitcase next to her bed.

"Come on, I will show you around the estate. You can unpack your things later." He offered her his hand.

She took it a little unsure. He took her with him and showed her the mansion, the gardens, which Hinata took an immediate liking to again, the training grounds and the lake, where the other houses were and finally the hot springs. It would take some time for Hinata to get used to everything, but Naruto promised himself that he would make sure to protect Hinata from every possible danger and help her get her memories back. He stayed at the estate the whole day to help Hinata get settled in. For one day the others would be more than capable of taking care of the investigation without him.

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><p><strong>That's it for this chapter. Hope you liked it. If you did, please leave reviews :)<strong>


	8. On the Culprit's Trail

**Hi, here is my newest chapter. For all those that like my story "Results of a Poker Night" I am currently writing the next chapters to replace the ones I lost when my old computer broke. So you can expect an update there in the next weeks. **

**Thanks to all those that left reviews for this story. Now happy reading for the next chapter.**

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><p><strong>On the Culprit's Trail<strong>

The next day Naruto made a dozen shadow clones to keep Hinata company and help her if she needed them. He wanted for her to be as comfortable as possible. He used his special transformation jutsu and transformed into Neji. He left the estate and went to the Hokage Tower to attend the meeting of the new, bigger investigation team. When he arrived, he was introduced to the new members of the team. To his great surprise, Ibiki seemed to see through his disguise. He stepped next to him and started whispering.

"Nice transformation you have there, kid, you just need to work on your acting skills to make it be believable. That Hyuga boy you are impersonating has much more of a snobbish attitude. I guess you are Kakashi's shadow man." Ibiki said.

"Damn, emo-bastards never were my forte to play. Yes, I am the one who operates from the shadows. Was my acting the only thing that gave my transformation away, Ibiki?" Naruto whispered back.

"Yes, I can't spot your transformation. A really remarkable jutsu you have there. You know a normal transformation is just a genjutsu?"

"Of course. I created this one accidentally while training the normal transformation. I tried to figure the transformation jutsu out on my own and this was the result. It takes more chakra but it is much more versatile."

"Indeed." Ibiki agreed.

'If I am right and this is Naruto, I really need to get him into ANBU once he graduates. It would be a waste of talent to have him do D-rank missions.' Ibiki thought.

"Alright, team. Hokage Sama made our investigation top priority. After the last attack at the wedding, which, while thankfully could be kept secret from the guests and therefore we prevented diplomatic problems, led to massive political pressure inside the village as the Hyuga heiress was involved in the attack by accident. We can't let this stand as it is. All of you got a summary of our conclusions so far. Can anybody add some more theories or strategies how we should deal with the problem?" Kakashi asked.

"Are we sure the Hyuga girl is safe where she is at the moment?" Genma asked.

"Yes, there is no safer place in the whole of Konoha. To ensure Hinata's safety only a very small group knows her location, this includes Hokage Sama, Hiashi Sama and me. There won't be any others who will be informed to not compromise security." Kakashi answered. "As you read in the file you got, we suspect a spy in our midst that has hidden himself pretty well. We have to get this spy to ensure the safety of Konoha as a whole."

"Can't we use a decoy to get the culprit out in the open? If he is after the girl, why not let one of us use a transformation to lure him out of hiding?" Izumo suggested.

"Because our spy is no idiot." Naruto said with Neji's typical arrogance. "If he was, he wouldn't have been able to sneak bombs onto the wedding with the best byakugan users of the Hyuga clan controlling all entrances to the building. We had every guest checked before they were let inside. This spy must have been in Konoha for many years, so he will know immediately if his supposed victim is the real Hinata Sama or not. It's nearly impossible to pretend being that weak." Naruto inwardly apologized to Hinata for having to say something like that.

"What we know from the first analysis of the research department is that the bombs probably were build with an unknown substance and therefore none of the guards could identify it. It was much more advanced than anything they saw before." Shikamaru informed everybody.

"Did the department find anything they could identify?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki was watching him interestedly. It was not everyday you got to find a hidden genius. This boy would be a great infiltration specialist. He had finally managed to find the chakra signature. It was really well hidden. This was without a doubt Naruto Uzumaki, the village pariah. He had been right to suspect him wearing a mask all the time. And after just one remind of watching his acting skills he impersonated Neji Hyuga perfectly. He would petition to get the boy properly trained. The civilian council be damned. They didn't need to be informed. There were options to declare the boy an ANBU trainee while keeping appearances as a normal genin. He would ask the Hokage about his idea soon. To waste such an incredible talent would be criminal and Konoha would be the laughing stock of all other villages if it ever got out.

* * *

><p>Two days later Naruto and Kakashi decided it would be good to test if Hinata's body remembered her fighting abilities. Nobody knew how long it would take for her to get her memories back, so they thought it would be best to see if she would be able to take the test for graduation in her current state. Naruto was wearing dark blue training clothes, Hinata the traditional black ones of the Hyuga clan. Naruto thought she looked really nice and that she needn't to hide her body like she normally did.<p>

"Okay, Hinata. We will start with warm up and then we try light sparring. To start we will run 10 laps around the lake, after that 50 push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and jumps." Naruto explained.

"Are you sure I can do all that? It sounds like so much." Hinata asked.

"Yes, I am. We often trained together and this is nothing for you. You could do this without any problem on a bad day. Just believe in yourself." He explained.

She nodded. Naruto began to jog to make Hinata more comfortable. She needed to see her abilities to gain confidence. Hinata was next to Naruto and began looking around. It was a sunny day and due to the early hour the grass was still moist under their feet. It was a nice feeling at her toes. Slowly Naruto increased the speed they were going at and Hinata followed without problem. She probably didn't even realize the speed she was going at now. Her body instinctively knew what to do. Naruto hoped this would also be true for her ability to meld chakra.

It she could do that, there wouldn't be any problems for her to pass the graduation exams at the academy. After all, the basic three jutsu that were taught there didn't require much chakra, only some control; and control had been one of Hinata's strengths. If she had forgot how to use them, she could relearn them in the one week they had left until the exams. They finished their laps and began the other exercises. Nothing Naruto showed Hinata gave her any problems. She obviously was encouraged that she still could do them, even if she hadn't been aware of them. After they finished the warm up, Naruto led Hinata to two training posts. He wanted to test her aim.

"We will start with your throwing skills. The exams will include kunai and shuriken throwing at stationary targets. I will show you how it is done first, then you can try, okay?" He said smiling at her.

Hinata nodded. So far Naruto had been right. This couldn't be that hard. Naruto took one of the blunted kunai, took aim and threw it. It hit the target bull's-eye. Naruto gave Hinata a kunai.

"Now it's your turn, Hinata. Just try to hit as close to the center as possible." He instructed.

Hinata took the kunai and took aim. She threw it and to her great surprise it hit the target. Not as well as Naruto had done, but it was close to the center.

"Great, Hinata. Try to change the angle of your hand slightly, then you can control the direction of the kunai easier." He advised.

She nodded and took the next kunai. She corrected the angle of her hand, Naruto stopped her as she changed it to the wrong direction and he showed her the right one, then she aimed anew and threw her kunai. It was nearly center now. She repeated the exercise and with each thrown kunai she got more confident. Soon she managed to hit the center most of the time.

"Thank you for your help, Naruto." She said smiling happily when Naruto called a stop to throwing practice.

Naruto smiled back. Hinata had used the same kind of affection in her voice using his name like before.

"Okay, next thing we will try is chakra control. Do you remember what chakra is, Hinata?"

"The energy ninjas use?" She replied.

Naruto nodded. He made a mental note to ask Iruka for some training tests to see what Hinata remembered of the things taught at the academy.

"I want you to try and mold your chakra. Please sit down and relax, Hinata."

Hinata nodded and sat down on the ground next to the lake. Naruto sat down in front of her.

"Now close your eyes."

She did.

"Concentrate on your body. Try to fell the chakra inside of you. There are paths that transport your chakra. Feel the flow." He instructed.

He waited until he thought she got it down. Everybody was different in accessing their chakra. Normally Hinata should find it easily as she had been using it for years.

"Now try directing your chakra to different parts of your body. Start with your hands." He said, waiting for her nod to show him that she had managed that.

"Try directing it at to your legs,…, your feet, …, your forehead,…, your eyes."

This was a critical point. Normally if she managed to direct the chakra to her eyes her byakugan should activate. If it worked, she would be able to protect herself better.

"I can feel it, Naruto." She said gently.

Naruto smiled. This was very good. He could see the veins next to her eyes getting more pronounced.

"Open your eyes, Hinata."

She did it and looked around.

"What is this? Why does everything look so different?" She asked.

"That's the special ability of your clan. The byakugan is a bloodline limit that gives your eyes the ability to see chakra and look through things. How far does your sight reach?" He asked.

"I don't know, Naruto." She responded.

He thought how he could determine the distance.

"Please describe to me what you can see. I will figure out how far away that is."

Hinata nodded. She concentrated and began to describe things to Naruto.

"I can see a lot of forest, there are some animals hiding in hollow trunks. Mostly birds and squirrels. Then there are three persons chasing a cat."

Naruto snickered at that. It had to be the infamous 'Capture Tora' mission he had heard older genins complain about.

"I can see buildings. There are people in some of them, others are empty. There is a large group of houses that are empty." She described.

'The Uchiha district.' Naruto figured. 'That's the nearest clan compound from here. About a mile from here.'

The next building I can see is full of people. They are on all floors. Three of them. Some of their chakra looks strange." Hinata told him.

'Must be the hospital.' Naruto mused.

Suddenly Hinata began to shake with fear and her byakugan deactivated. She began to embrace herself and fell to the ground.

"Hinata!" Naruto called out and tried to get Hinata out of her closing up. He sat her up and began moving his hands in circles on her back. He tried to calm her down, talking softly with her.

"Please look at me Hinata." He told her.

He could see tears falling from her eyes. With great effort Hinata managed to open her eyes and looked into his. She was terrified. That much was clear. Naruto did the only thing he could think of and hugged her. He stroked her hair and did his best to calm her down.

"Shh, it's alright; whatever you have seen, it can't hurt you here. You are safe. I will never allow anything to harm you, Hinata." He whispered into her ear. "We will stop training for today. You did very well. We will test if you can use jutsus tomorrow."

Hinata sobbed into Naruto's shoulder. He wondered what she could have seen to be this scared.

"The last thing you saw with your byakugan was the hospital, right?" He asked.

"I don't know. It was the building with the many people in it." She answered.

"Then it was the hospital, Hinata. You probably saw someone who was very ill and his chakra signature therefore scared you. I think you will be fine when you have rested a bit. Don't worry." He smiled kindly.

"Thank you, Naruto." She said, holding onto him like a life line.

He lifted her from the ground and carried her to her room bridal style.

* * *

><p>After he made sure that Hinata relaxed, Naruto made fifteen shadow clones and divided them over the property. Then he left the estate and went to the Hokage Tower. When he arrived there, he went directly to Kakashi.<p>

"Our culprit is at the hospital." He announced in his Neji transformation.

"How did you find out?" Kakashi asked.

Some others also listened.

"As you asked me to, I was testing if Hinata Sama would be able to take the graduation exams with her classmates. While her skills are pathetic for the clan heiress she is able to use chakra and activate her byakugan. When I told her to describe to me what she was seeing to determine the range of her byakugan she suddenly began to shake and fell to the ground embracing herself. The training partner you sent to help her managed to calm her down enough to tell us what she had seen. The last she saw from her description was the hospital. And the only reason she would react that scared would be if she saw the chakra signature of the culprit." He explained.

"Who is her training partner?" Kotetsu asked.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru interrupted. "That information is classified to ensure Hinata's safety. We know we are up against a very dangerous opponent. To give out that information would probably lead to the capture of her training partner as our culprit would want to use him to find Hinata's hideout."

The ones listening nodded. That was a sensible thing to do.

"Hm, I hope this doesn't create a relapse in her healing." Mused Kakashi.

"Perhaps we should let Kabuto or his father do a check-up." Suggested Shino.

"Not a bad idea, but not at the hospital. We will call them to the Hokage Tower, to make sure nobody can interfere." Shikamaru added.

Many of the adults were again impressed by the level of skill these academy students showed.

"Neji and I will return to Hinata and her training partner to tell them about this." Kakashi said and Neji nodded.

"Wait a moment, how could Neji get out of the hideout without knowing the location?" Ibiki asked.

"Don't forget who my sensei was, Ibiki. Minato sensei taught me some things about seals. I am nowhere near his or Jiraiya Sama's level, but I know how to build certain seals. The one we use to keep the location a secret is an imitation of the body flicker. Minato sensei developed it before he managed to finish his flying thundergod jutsu. I just had to reproduce the seals and place the recipient seal at the Tower and the sender seal at the hideout. Not that hard." Kakashi explained.

Everyone accepted the explanation. The Yondaime Hokage had been one of the best seal masters ever.

* * *

><p>Kakashi and Naruto left to fetch Hinata while Asuma and Shino went to get Kabuto or his father. At the hospital he was told that Sakato Yakushi was currently in the emergency room, but Kabuto was available. So Shino went to the told room to get the teenager. Half an hour later the three reached the Hokage Tower where Hinata, Kakashi and Naruto waited for them.<p>

Kabuto sat down in front of Hinata and started asking her questions. Hinata was obviously nervous, but answered Kabuto's questions. When Kabuto was finished with his check-up, he told everybody except Kakashi to wait outside.

"It seems like she has been thrown back a bit by this. It would probably be better if she didn't use her byakugan in case this repeats itself. Otherwise I fear her memories won't come back. She could just refuse to remember to avoid the pain it obviously triggers." Kabuto explained.

"I understand. I will make sure that this will be put into consideration during her training." Kakashi replied.

* * *

><p>Naruto in his Neji disguise and Hinata waited in front of the Hokage Tower as Hinata wanted to see a bit of the activities in the village. Naruto was highly alert. The probability of an attack now was slim, but he would never forgive himself if he let something happen to Hinata. And due to his disguise he had to hide his abilities. Nobody would believe that Neji would use a lot of ninjutsu as a Hyuga. And even if, he was just a genin. No genin was capable of what Naruto was able to do. Naruto knew the only thing between his abilities and the jonin rank were his still growing body and his lack of experience. But he was sure that he would make chunin during the next exams if his sensei entered his team. And he was fairly sure that in his year were some other candidates for chunin rank. Shikamaru and Shino for sure, Hinata if she got her memories back.<p>

Naruto had a suspicious feeling that something wasn't right. He looked around to detect any danger but he couldn't spot it. Then a slight noise reached his ears. He looked up and saw one of the lights on the side of the tower swaying alarmingly. He reacted immediately and pulled Hinata with him aside so that she would be out of danger. And his action was just in time. Just when he was out of reach of the light, it came crashing down loudly.

Naruto shielded Hinata with his body against the dust and debris. Shouts of scared people reached Naruto. He was very grateful this moment that his transformation couldn't be dispelled by hits. Otherwise his disguise would have been shattered by now. He could feel how Hinata was trembling in his arms.

'Damn, now we have to see Kabuto again. I just hope Hinata can overcome this. But I want to know how the light could crash down. The Hokage tower is well guarded. I have to know if this was an accident or an attempt at Hinata's life. I fear the latter.' He thought.

Some of the guards at the tower came to check if anybody was injured. Naruto made sure to not let anybody touch Hinata. If anybody wanted to poison her unnoticed, this chaos would be the perfect opportunity. Now Neji's bloodline would have come in handy. He could have spotted anything suspicious in the crowd. So Naruto had to concentrate at his immediate surroundings. He could only hope his disguise wouldn't be compromised. Sure enough a lot of people wanted to check Hinata if she was unhurt, but Naruto kept everybody away. A lot of them looked insulted, but Naruto couldn't care less. All that counted was Hinata's safety.

Soon Kakashi appeared next to him.

"Good job in keeping Hinata safe, Neji." He said.

Naruto checked Kakashi's chakra signature to not fall for an imposter before he relaxed slightly.

"Thank you, Captain Kakashi." He answered.

Finally Kabuto also appeared. He quickly rook charge and checked Hinata for injuries.

"She isn't injured, Kakashi, just a shock due to the incident." He told them.

"Thank you, Kabuto."

He turned to some members of the investigation team.

"Research if this was an accident or purpose. I want a full report in two hours." Kakashi ordered and got acknowledging answers.

"Let's get Hinata back, Neji." Kakashi then said and Naruto just nodded.

* * *

><p>The next day in the academy everybody was talking about the accident as it was officially labeled. Naruto had sent a shadow clone to keep appearances for the last days. Iruka had yet to find out that he wasn't really attending classes. As long as they didn't have taijutsu training he was fine. Ino had approached him and asked if he knew more about how Hinata was fairing, but he could only tell her the official cover. If anybody suspected he had contact with Hinata in her hideout, he would also be targeted to get her. But he knew he had to act fast. This couldn't go on. If the murderer was able to sabotage the holdings of one of the lights at the Hokage tower, he was much more dangerous and skilled than they had suspected until now.<p>

Sasuke was his usual jackass self and told everybody that if he still were part of the investigation team the culprit would already be caught. After all, no simple criminal stood a chance against an Uchiha like him. His fangirls swooned around him. Kiba was loud and brash and clashed a lot with Sasuke while arguing with him, Choji was annoyed and just ate his chips, Ino was wondering if she really liked Sasuke that much. The last few days had been an eye-opening experience for her. She was worried about Hinata and her condition and she really didn't like the way others were making fun of her. Why would it be Hinata's fault that she got hurt in the attack? What right did Sasuke have to belittle her and everybody else? He wasn't that special. Hinata was a nice girl and trained hard to become a skilled kunoichi. If Ino was honest, Hinata was probably the top kunoichi in their class.

But obviously in Sasuke's eyes nobody mattered but himself and his revenge. Curiously it was Naruto who calmed her down before she could start a shouting match with Sakura and the other fangirls.

"Stay calm, Ino. We only have one week left at the academy before we will take our graduation exams. Who knows, maybe Sasuke will lose his beloved spot of Rookie of the Year. Somebody else could surpass him."

"I doubt it, Naruto. He was always the best student in our year. He has no weak areas in his abilities. Who could challenge him for the top spot? You?"

"Perhaps." Naruto winked. "But I think you underestimate our classmates. There are others than me who don't show all their skills during lessons. Take Shino for example. He is stronger than he appears and if he would stop holding back, he could beat Sasuke for sure. But Shino is a true shinobi; he keeps his abilities a secret. Our greatest tool is deception, right?" He asked.

Ino couldn't help but agree with him. Iruka thought it would be a good idea to test his students' abilities to give the weaker ones pointers what they had to work on until the final exams. He was especially worried about Naruto. The boy seemed like always, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off about him.

"Alright, everybody listen. We are going to test your physical abilities outside." Iruka announced.

The Naruto clone got worried. He couldn't do a sparring match; he would be dispelled if he was hit once. Normally it wouldn't be a problem to dodge the attacks of his classmates, but he needed to stay under the radar for just some days. If he showed superior evading skills, the council could be informed and he didn't need that so close to his goal. His mask had to hold just six days longer. What could he do?

"Ah, Iruka sensei." He began.

"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka asked.

"I have a little problem, you see, I got immunity shots yesterday and the medic forbid me to do any strenuous training for two days. Could I be excused from sparring?" Naruto asked, hoping Iruka would buy the excuse.

"Why didn't you inform me of that issue before?" Iruka asked annoyed.

"Well, I kinda forgot as we didn't have physical training planned following our schedules. It would have normally been the day after tomorrow when we had taijutsu training and then it would have been okay for me to participate." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head embarrassed.

"You are such an idiot, Naruto." Kiba shouted.

"Quiet!" Iruka shouted. "You are excused for sparring, Naruto. But next time remember to inform your superior of something like this." He admonished the blond boy.

"Will do, Iruka sensei." Naruto answered, relieved that his deception wouldn't be seen through now.

Sasuke made some comments about dobes, but Naruto ignored him. That got Ino curious. She had only seen Naruto blow up because of Sasuke's comments. Why didn't he retort? But obviously she was the only one who noticed it.

* * *

><p>They lined up outside the academy at the target practice field.<p>

"We will start with your throwing abilities." Iruka said. "You will do the exercise three students at the same time. Mizuki sensei will call out what scores you achieved."

Mizuki raised his arm near the targets.

"The first three are Choji, Hoki and Sakura." Iruka called.

They went forward and threw eight shuriken and kunai each. Mizuki shouted the scores for each student and Iruka wrote them down. Nobody noticed the additional watcher when the last three lined up. They were Sasuke, Naruto and Ino. Sasuke like always got a perfect score and looked smug about it. Ino was above average, but missed three targets. Naruto's clone felt the watcher and performed average. Throwing was one of the areas where he could do acceptable without raising suspicion. After all, with all the extra training he showed to outsiders he should be able to get a pass in this area. So he hit five targets each and got a nod from Iruka for this.

Next were the sparring matches. As planned Naruto sat on the sidelines and observed the others. On the inside he rolled his eyes at some performances. He sat next to Choji, who had already won against his opponent, using his clan jutsus. Choji even offered Naruto some chips which he gratefully accepted. When Sasuke fought, his ever faithful fangirls went crazy. Naruto just blocked them out. Normally now would be the time for the obstacle course, but a younger class was using it, so Iruka decided to go back to the classroom and test them for ninjutsu. He wanted to be sure they all could do substitution, transformation and clone jutsu. Naruto's clone decided to have some fun. He had a mask to keep after all.

One after another went in front to show the jutsus. When it was Sasuke's turn, he showed each jutsu flawlessly. He changed places with a chair, transformed into Mizuki and made five clones. More than everybody else had done. Now it was Naruto's turn. He changed places with the same chair Sasuke had used, then he got a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Transform!" He shouted.

When the smoke vanished, a beautiful girl, naked at that, with long blond pigtails stood in front of the class.

"Like what you see, sensei?" She asked cutely.

Mizuki and Iruka were blown back by massive nosebleeds. The problem for Naruto was that every single girl in the class didn't like that show at all. They all now wanted to murder Naruto. The clone transformed back and substituted with Sasuke, who wasn't fast enough to react and was confronted with the ire of his fangirls, who didn't notice the exchange at first, for the first time in his life. The Naruto clone had a lot of fun watching the bastard getting pummeled by the girls. Finally they noticed that they had got the wrong boy and were horrified who they had thrashed. The Naruto clone decided now would be a good time to flee and jumped out of the window.

"I have to go, Iruka sensei! Staying wouldn't be good for my health!" He shouted being chased by a furious Sakura hot on his heels until he jumped out of the window.

"Well, as Naruto is currently indisposed to show us the clone jutsu, Ino it's your turn." Iruka said, trying to regain his dignity while wiping the blood from his nose.

The real Naruto was questioning the hospital staff about the first victim, Shuichi Rikoma. Of course in his disguise as Neji. He finally got something interesting from the assistant of the personnel chief. Rikoma had taken a vacation of ten days two weeks prior to his death. He had left Konoha for Wave Country as it was reported. But curiously there were no reports from the guards at the east gate, which led in the direction of Wave Country, that he had left. But there was a report from the west gate. That was curious. Why would he take such a detour and leave from the gate that pointed in the opposite direction? Naruto got the complete list of shinobi and civilians that left the village through the west gate the day before, the same day Rikoma left and the next day. It narrowed down the possible culprits immensely.

Naruto began investigating his now massively narrowed down suspects. And he got some shocking results. If he was right, his culprit was dangerously well placed in Konoha. But how could he prove this? First he decided to create a hundred shadow clones, which would transform into animals, small children unsuspicious objects or the occasional civilian. This way he could observe the main suspect without being caught.

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><p><strong>Until next time. Please review.<strong>


	9. Showdown

**Hi, here is the conclusion of the case. Who is the culprit that targets Hinata? Read and find out!**

**Thanks for the reviews, even if i would have liked more. Happy reading.**

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><p><strong>Showdown<strong>

While Naruto was getting closer to finding the culprit, Hinata trained with Naruto's shadow clones at the estate. She was able to relearn the basic academy jutsu easily in just one day. That part of the exam was therefore covered. Her great chakra control was a blessing for this. Her juuken training was a greater problem. She couldn't remember the style and while her body had some muscle memory, she couldn't fully use the style without the byakugan. And that bore the danger of seeing the culprit again, leading to a relapse in her healing. So Naruto just trained her in the academy style of taijutsu, honed her dodging skills with rubber balls to not scare her and did an obstacle course with her.

When Hinata relaxed in the hot spring after training, her thoughts were drifting towards the incident with the falling lamp. Naruto hadn't hesitated to protect her with his body. He had pulled her away and shielded her against the debris. He hadn't thought about himself in the situation, she had been his priority. Naruto had risked his life for her. The lamp had been extremely heavy, if one of them had been hit with it, they would have probably died. Why did he do it? Why would he do that for her? He had told her that they were friends, but was that really enough to risk his life? She felt a special bond with Naruto, but she couldn't really tell what it was. But she knew she didn't want him to be in danger because of her. He did so much for her already by letting her live with him and Kakashi and by helping her train so she could pass the graduation exams.

Sometimes she felt alone in the compound. While she always had some Naruto clones around her, she wished she could have some contact with others. The girl, Ino, who had visited her at the hospital seemed nice; she would like to talk to another girl once in a while. Perhaps she could ask Naruto or Kakashi if it would be possible to visit her.

When she returned to her room, she dried her hair and changed into casual clothes. She knew Naruto and Kakashi usually came back at eight. Then she would be able to ask if she could visit Ino. It was now six o'clock and she decided to watch TV for a while until they came back.

The program she chose was about different tourist attractions in the elemental nations. The report started with Lightning Country and its mountains where kayaking was advertised. Then it changed to Wind Country and their golden, sandy beaches with deep blue water at the coast. It was interesting that a country that mostly consisted of desert had a well-going beach tourism. Finally it was Fire Country's part. The reporters pointed out sights in the capitol and advertised the Ninja Adventure Land. When the camera pointed at some of the most famous attractions, Hinata had the feeling of déjà vu.

"I know that tower. I am sure I have seen it before." She exclaimed. "I have to talk about this with Naruto or Kakashi."

She left her room intending to look for one of Naruto's clones. Strangely she couldn't find one. But in the kitchen Kakashi was waiting for water in a tea-kettle to start boiling.

"Oh, hello, Hinata, how are you?" Kakashi asked.

"I am fine, Kakashi. Kakashi, there was a report on tourist attractions on TV. I am sure I have been at the Ninja Adventure Land that they showed sometime. I recognized the tower they showed." Hinata told him excitedly.

"That's great news, Hinata. Perhaps a visit there would help you to remember more of it." He suggested.

"That would be great, Kakashi. I also wanted to ask if I could visit Ino sometime. I would like to speak to someone besides you and Naruto; and occasionally Kabuto for check-ups. I miss talking to a girl." She begged.

Kakashi thought about it. He would have to ask Kabuto about this. If he thought that visiting the Adventure Land would help Hinata he (Kakashi) would organize the trip there. They would just have to place enough guards around Hinata to make sure nothing could endanger her.

"If Kabuto agrees with the trip, I think we could manage it. Ino could accompany you there that would solve the problem of contact. It would be hard to organize it in the village due to security issues. As long as the trip is kept a secret, the serial murderer shouldn't attack you. Perhaps we could include some of your other classmates as well. The more people you are surrounded by, the better protected you would be. And we are sure that none of your classmates are involved in the case. Of course you would be under the protection of some guards." Kakashi pondered.

"Could you please not tell Naruto about the trip if you get permission for it? I don't want for him to risk his life for me again. He is doing so much for me. I don't want him to be hurt because of me." She pleaded.

Kakashi seriously thought about it. He knew Naruto would do anything in his power to keep Hinata safe. He just couldn't help himself there, he was in love. If anything happened to Hinata Naruto would take it extremely hard. If the murderer would succeed and Hinata died, Naruto would never forgive himself. But Naruto was also very close to finding the culprit from the short report he had sent with a shadow clone this afternoon. He had a promising lead and was following it. If he managed to catch the murderer Hinata would then be safe. And as long as nobody in Konoha but those that had to permit the visit would know that she was leaving the safety of the Namikaze estate, the risk for her would be pretty low. And the chance that she remembered something was big.

"I think that would be doable. Naruto is currently following a promising lead in the case and it would be best if he concentrated on that. I will talk with Kabuto immediately if he agrees with the trip and if he says 'yes' I will get permission from Hokage Sama and your father. I think I will have it done after dinner." Kakashi said.

He saw Hinata smiling and left the estate to body flicker to the hospital in search of Kabuto.

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><p>As Kakashi had thought, Kabuto encouraged the idea of Hinata trying to remember something while being at the Adventure Park. Getting permission from the Hokage and Hiashi was more difficult, but with Kabuto's analysis backing the idea up and Hiashi wanting to have his daughter healed form her amnesia, they finally allowed the trip to happen. Kakashi gave the Hokage the names of the ninjas he wanted to have the group accompany them as guards. The fact that he had chosen six high ranking ninjas that were very capable as bodyguards eased the concerns both had.<p>

He sent Shikamaru and Shino out to inform Hinata's classmates that Kakashi wanted to have on the trip and additionally to keep up pretenses, he also had them inform Gai's team. Their mission was already done and they just kept out of the village so Naruto could use Neji's identity for the investigation. The team would meet with them on the way to the Adventure Land.

His protection detail therefore contained Asuma, Kurenai, Ibiki, Genma, Izumo, Kotetsu, Gai and himself. The kids that were invited were Choji, Ino, Kiba, Tenten, Lee and Neji. Shino and Shikamaru were obvious. When he went back to the estate and told Hinata the good news, she happily thanked him.

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><p>Naruto got home late that night. He found Kakashi and Hinata were already asleep. Okay, it was one in the morning. But he had finally found out who the murderer was. He just needed to collect proof tomorrow and he had a good idea where he could find it. And as long as Hinata was in the safety of the Namikaze estate it didn't matter if he informed Kakashi tonight or tomorrow. He was so close to finally get the culprit. If Kakashi had been awake he would have informed him about his conclusions, but this way it would be in the morning.<p>

It had been a great help that he had stumbled over the son of the late lead investigator in the murder of Shuichi Rikoma, Kosuke Shikono. Shinji Shikono was angry at the investigation team that didn't save his father and angry at the medics that didn't spot the poisoning in time. He had therefore started his own investigation into the death of his father and found some very interesting facts. That death, after listening to the findings of Shinji, looked like a murder as well to Naruto.

Normally each Shinobi was checked upon return from a mission where they were injured if they were in good condition to take on other missions or if they needed to be treated for infections or poisons and the like. For the group that had been with Kosuke the examination had been massively delayed because a severe case of food poisoning had spread through the village and the medics had been hurrying to get the symptoms under control. That had taken four days. Then, when the team was to be examined, again something had happened. The death of Rikoma to be precise and Kosuke Shikono and his team had been tasked with the investigation. From the autopsy Shinji had found out that the poison, once it had spread far enough in his father's body had acted fast.

Naruto got suspicious of the timing. While the case of Rikoma's murder had been coincidentally given to Kosuke's team, the timing indeed indicated that there was something more going on. He had Shinji tell him the ones in charge of the routine check-ups during the food poisoning incident and he found a match with his list from the gates. Naruto had burrowed himself in the files of that person and came up with a nice spy network the culprit had built right under their noses in Konoha. Shinji had promised to give him additional proof tomorrow and Naruto knew he just needed to build a trap for the murderer. He would prepare everything and then talk to Kakashi to coordinate the capture.

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><p>The next morning Naruto left the estate early, not having a clue of the plans Kakashi, Hinata and the others had made for the day. He was so busy thinking up the best way to catch the murderer that he even forgot to make a bunch of shadow clones to train with Hinata. Well, Kakashi was glad for this little oversight on part of his little brother today. This way they could keep their plans a secret from him. Naruto would be angry with them, no doubt, but with their security precautions they should be safe either way. Kakashi took Hinata to the gate and then body flickered them to the meeting point, just outside the gates of the village.<p>

The protection team and the kids were already waiting there for them. The adults used another body flicker to get the group three miles further where Gai's team was waiting. Ino, knowing that Hinata didn't recognize any of the others took over the introductions.

"Hi, Hinata. It's good to see you again. Well, I think it would be best if I introduced you to the others as you can't remember them at the moment. The boy with the dog on his head is Kiba, the dog is Akamaru." She pointed at the pair, Kiba raising his hand greeting.

"They boy with the chips bag is Choji." She said. "A well meant part of advice, he is very nice but never call him fat." She added whispering and Hinata nodded.

"I think you have already met Shikamaru and Shino." Ino asked, getting a nod.

"The next group over there is your cousin Neji's team, his teammates Tenten and Lee."

"Nice to meet you all." Hinata greeted them smiling.

"Yosh, what a youthful day to meet you properly, Hinata. We will do our best to help you regain your youthful memories." Lee shouted, getting knocked over the head by Tenten.

"Keep your voice down, idiot." She scolded him.

Hinata not sure how to react to that display kept quiet.

"Okay, now that we are complete, let's head out." Kakashi said.

Ino and Tenten stayed next to Hinata, the boys loosely around them.

"So, what happened during the last few days since the attack, Hinata?" Kiba asked.

Ino groaned and resolved to hit him later.

"Don't you have any tact, mutt?" She asked irritated.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked angrily.

"I don't think girls like being reminded of an event like that in the way you did, Kiba." Shino explained.

"Oh, well sorry, Hinata." Kiba said after thinking about it.

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><p>From the shadows of the trees somebody was closely observing the group. He had waited for a chance like this. The girl was finally out of her hideout for a longer period of time. He would never have thought she would be that well hidden. He hadn't managed to find out where she stayed. All his first attempts to find her had gone wrong. But he would never have thought it could be this easy. They had really let her out of safety to try and regain some memories. Kakashi and his team of guards might be a little problem, but he had already organized a suitable distraction for them once they reached their destination. It would be easy to kill the girl once they were otherwise occupied.<p>

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><p>The group reached the Adventure Land at ten. The ninjas spread out in disguise while the kids went to the attractions. They had a lot of fun. Ino, who had a little idea which attractions Hinata had visited last time, led her around and had her try all of them. Tenten and Ino tried to keep the talk simple and told her what happened at the academy, Tenten had a nice little story about an embarrassing moment of Neji, when he had been thought to be a girl by Lee in the beginning; Ino told her the newest gossip from her own class.<p>

Choji got the whole group cold drinks, Hinata asked to have a can of cola, but put it into a pocket of her backpack for later. Then Tenten talked about her team.

"Gai sensei and Lee are always shouting nonsense about the Flames of Youth, Neji is stiff as a stick and is always going on about fate. Then Lee and Gai sensei are workaholics. You can't imagine what they do for training. I mean, I don't mind training hard, but there are limits the human body can endure. And running fifty times around the village just for warm up is over the top." She complained.

"You are kidding me?" Ino asked. "My god, I am glad Gai sensei already has a team. I can't imagine having him as my sensei after graduation."

Tenten nodded miserably. While Gai was a good teacher, he overdid it most of the time.

"So tell me, Hinata, what kind of training did you do to get back to your old form?" Tenten asked.

But Hinata was distracted. She looked at a ramen booth. A Picture of Naruto who grinned at her surfaced and him telling her something. But what was it?

"Hinata, are you there?" Ino asked.

"Sorry Ino. I just had some kind of flash. Have Naruto and I by chance been eating ramen together when we were here?" She asked.

"I don't know. You and Naruto were a group of two and we didn't meet during the class trip to the Adventure Land. But it is very possible. Naruto's favorite is ramen. Hey, that means some of your memories are coming back. That's great, Hinata. Let's see if more come back when we walk around." Ino squealed.

Hinata nodded smiling, but wished she could remember what Naruto had told her. And what was that feeling she had had when she had the flash? But if she didn't remember her and Naruto eating ramen, could she figure out that feeling? And she had to keep a secret that Naruto was training with her. Nobody could know where she was hiding. She had to keep him safe. Especially as he would risk his life for her again. She didn't know why but the thought of losing him was unbearable. She followed the girls to a ride while the boys kept an eye on their surroundings.

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><p>Naruto was looking for Kakashi; he had worked out how they could corner the murderer. Shinji had given him the last proof he needed, the formula for the bombs that had been used to attack Anko. He had to admit it was brilliant. He walked inside the office in the tower and soon noticed certain people being away. Only a few were left to continue the investigation.<p>

"Morning, where is Captain Kakashi?" He asked.

"Morning, Neji. Kakashi is out. I don't know where, but Hokage Sama gave permission for whatever he is doing. I don't know more about it." A chunin told him.

"Thanks, I will ask Hokage Sama if he can tell me more about it." Naruto said and left the room.

He walked to the office of the Hokage and knocked. He waited shortly until he was called inside.

"Neji, nice to see you, how can I help you?" The Hokage asked, knowing it was Naruto.

"I was looking for Captain Kakashi, Hokage Sama. I have found out who the murderer is and wanted to coordinate a trap with him." Naruto said.

"You know the murderer? That's fantastic. Kakashi is out of the village at the moment with Hinata. She remembered something yesterday while watching a documentation of tourist attractions in the elemental nations. They are at the Ninja Adventure Land to try helping her regain her memories. Kabuto said it wouldn't be a problem and probably help her. So who is the culprit?" He asked.

Naruto answered throwing a file on the Hokage's desk and running out of the building at top speed. How could they risk so much? Okay, they didn't know about the culprit, but he had thought Hinata was safe. Now he really wished to have mastered his father's flying thundergod jutsu. It would make getting there on time so much easier.

Meanwhile the Hokage read the file Naruto had left and cursed. Now he knew why the boy had reacted like he did. This was a big problem. He just hoped they could protect Hinata. He walked down to the office the rest of the investigation team was assembled at.

"Everybody listen!" He ordered. "I just got the evidence who the murderer was. I need every available ninja at the Ninja Adventure Land to capture him and protect Hinata Hyuga."

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><p>Naruto ran at jonin speed towards the Adventure Land, hoping he wasn't too late. His restriction seals were disabled and he powered his legs with chakra. He stopped his transformation, knowing he didn't have to fool people outside of Konoha. And it saved chakra. Finally after half an hour of running he reached the entrance gates. He paid the fee and entered. It would be too much hassle if anybody tried to stop him for not paying. He made ten shadow clones which he transformed into other visitors. He needed to stay invisible. He didn't want to tip the murderer off. He pondered how he could find Hinata easiest and decided the binoculars on top of the mountain in the north-west of the park would be best to start.<p>

He went there himself, on the way looking around if he could find Hinata. But he didn't get lucky. When he reached the cave with the binoculars, he started looking for her at the most popular attractions first. After five minutes he finally found her. She was watching the afternoon parade with Ino and Tenten. He also spotted Shikamaru and Shino close to them. Good, at least they were watching her. Then he spotted somebody he didn't want to see. The murderer and he was talking to another suspect person.

"Shit, I need to get down there immediately and get Hinata away." He cursed.

Just when he wanted to leave and run down, he saw an explosion going off in the north part of the park. Additionally ten ninjas without headband were closing in on Hinata. Kakashi and the other adults were intercepting them, but Naruto knew it was all a distraction.

He couldn't use the long way, so he jumped out of the window and activated a seal on the back of his shirt. Black wings erupted and Naruto used his wind-manipulation to fly towards Hinata's position. He could now see them with his eyes and saw the others trying to get away from the fights. Sadly that got them closer to the murderer. Naruto deactivated the seal and the wings were pulled back inside again. Naruto dropped down from a few feet, just in time to deflect a barrage of shuriken that would have hit Hinata otherwise.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked surprised.

"You have to get away from here. Follow me." He ordered, taking her hand, while keeping his kunai in his other hand.

"Buy me some time to get her to safety." He shouted towards Shino who nodded.

"Why do you let that impostor of Naruto take Hinata?" Kiba yelled at Shino.

"Because that isn't an impostor. My allies would have noticed that. Naruto's chakra is unique. No possibility of error possible. He will keep her safe." Shino replied, sending out his bugs to intercept their pursuers.

"But he is the dead last." Kiba protested.

"No, he isn't. You will find out what we mean during the graduation exams in three days." Shikamaru said using his shadow capture technique to subdue two of the attackers and letting Choji knock them out.

Naruto led Hinata into a bulk of people, only to be surprised that the murderer obviously didn't care who he hit. Naruto saw a balloon being hit by a senbon. He couldn't protect Hinata in such a situation. His best bet was running around, not giving a clear target. Sadly he needed to start from a high point to effectively use the wings. But there were enough possibilities to hide here. He ran towards the water that separated the part of the park they were in at the moment, the central island, from the part that resembled Earth Country with its rocky mountains. He hoped to lose the murderer running up the mountain.

He quickly gathered Hinata in his arms and started running on top of the water. He knew Hinata couldn't walk on water yet. She had only mastered tree climbing so far, but with her amnesia he wouldn't risk it either way. Soon he heard somebody else running across the water. So their pursuer had decided to come after them. Damn, he needed some kind of surprise move to lose him.

"Hinata, climb on my back, I need to have my hands free to form handseals." Naruto told her.

Hinata moved to Naruto's back to give him room to form the handseals. Naruto started immediately to form them at high speed. While the jutsu wasn't perfect yet, he could use it well enough to distract an opponent.

"Water release: Water bullets." Naruto called the jutsu out, turned around, keeping running backwards now and shot three fast bullets at their pursuer.

He saw that he had to dodge the jutsu and Naruto managed to gain more distance after turning around again.

Then Naruto silently created ten doubles of him and Hinata, sending them in different directions. He could hear their opponent cursing. He didn't wait and ran towards a waterfall.

"Naruto, stop, there is a waterfall." Hinata called frightened.

"Trust me, Hinata. The waterfall is no real obstacle for me." Naruto responded and just jumped down.

Hinata desperately clung to him, hoping he knew what he did. Soon Naruto landed on the surface at the bottom of the waterfall and continued running.

He reached the foot of the mountain and let Hinata down.

"Come on, he will have a hard time finding us with all the rocks giving us cover. Help is on the way. Hokage Sama is informed about the identity of the murderer and will send the rest of the investigation team soon." Naruto said.

Hinata nodded and followed him. Naruto led them up the mountain, hoping they wouldn't be followed soon. Sadly he was mistaken. A small explosion informed them that they had been found.

"Naruto, he hit the cola in my backpack with that explosion." Hinata told him frightened.

'Cola?' Naruto thought and had an idea to surprise his opponent. He looked at his watch and noticed he could manage it. He just needed to buy some more time. He pulled Hinata with him and directed them through the maze towards the top of the mountain. Finally they reached two boulders where they could hide behind for some time.

Naruto listened to the footsteps of his pursuer and when they stopped close to them, he stepped out from his cover and climbed onto the stone. He motioned Hinata to the hidden slide behind the stone, but also signed to wait jumping down.

"There is nobody left here, you can come out now." Naruto called.

The murderer didn't come out but he listened.

"I already know who you are, so hiding is pointless, Kabuto Yakushi." He continued and finally Kabuto stepped out from his cover.

"I am impressed, Naruto. How did you know it was me?" Kabuto asked. "I thought my alibi was perfect."

"You mean because none of the Hyugas spotted the bombs on you when you were searched at the entrance? Or why you weren't included in the group of those that were closer investigated?" Naruto asked back.

"You have to admit those questions are pressing for me." Kabuto said.

"I found out how you managed to get away from the building before the thorough checks for little hints of involvement were done really fast. I was absolutely sure that none of the Hyugas had overlooked anything when they did the checks with their byakugan after Anko and Hinata were attacked. After all, the culprit should have some residue of chakra usage or remains of the bombs on him. But curiously nobody stood out. The only one to use chakra there was your father, who stabilized Anko in the bathroom.

"I personally made sure that the building was searched thoroughly before the celebration even started. We even banned the first aid kits to the neighbor buildings and exchanged all the potted plants for those searched by ANBU."

"Yes, that was a little inconvenient for me. I had to find another way to bring the bombs inside, I admit. I never would have thought that it was you who tipped them off about all possible hiding places I could have utilized. You definitely are not what you appear to be, Naruto." Kabuto said.

"Always look underneath the underneath." Naruto wisely recited his big brother. "Well, I thought hard how the culprit could have managed to escape. Then I thought about those that were exempt from the search. You were on my list very early as a suspect. After all, you were sent to the hospital by your father to get the emergency room ready. But I wasn't sure; you didn't do anything else to hinder Anko's treatment. It could have been a coincidence.

"When you treated Hinata you mostly used your right hand, for example for writing, but in moments when you acted instinctively, like when you dropped your pen one time, you used your left. You are a really well trained actor, Kabuto, but those little details were standing out in my mind and made me investigate your history further. But I still needed evidence to convict you. Until that point everything could just have been chance." Naruto told him.

"So, how did I use the bombs, I would like to know what you found out." Kabuto asked.

"Medical chakra." Naruto stated.

Kabuto looked shocked that Naruto really knew the secret.

"Surprised? I have thought long and hard how it could be possible to activate the bombs with chakra without setting the alarms off and activating the chakra suppression seals all over the building. Only certain non aggressive jutsus were included in the security system, medical techniques for example. You used a special powder that can be filled into metal orbs. Metal orbs that could be disguised as buttons of your shirt for example. If it gets into contact with medical chakra it activates and explodes. It was an accidental product of another research project. Kosuke Shikono was part of that team as were you. He had to die because you wanted to keep your new weapon a secret. Sadly his son also knew about the powder and had the notes of his father for it."

Kabuto grimaced. He had thought he had destroyed all records of the project.

"You came after Hinata because you couldn't be sure she hadn't seen you with her byakugan. If it had only been Anko in the room, you would have been safe, but with a Hyuga you had to kill her before she would regain her memories and convict you as the culprit. Isamu Nakasawa, Takato Shinaro and Anko Mitarashi were just risks in your scheme to eliminate Shuichi Rikoma. If they found out that it had been murder, all the people that worked close to him would have been thoroughly checked."

"You definitely know too much, Naruto. But how did you suspect me in the first place and why were you convinced that Shuichi didn't commit suicide?" Kabuto asked.

"That you will find out once Hokage Sama gets here and you are arrested." Naruto said and jumped down the slide directly after Hinata.

Kabuto ran towards the slide and cursed.

* * *

><p>Naruto took Hinata through some tunnels under the water to get to the false volcano on the next island that resembled Demon Country. He led her through the labyrinth and stopped them close to one of the imitated lava rivers where the visitors could ride upon using rafts. Then another volley of shuriken hit close to them and Naruto pushed Hinata behind a boulder.<p>

"There is no way for you to escape, Naruto. You should give up. All your back-up is busy fighting my helpers. You won't escape from here." Kabuto shouted. "But if you tell me how you determined that I was the one who murdered Isamu and Takato, you will live a while longer."

"The reports from the entrance gates. Shuichi only left one time for more than short periods on his own. I was following the theory that he could be a spy at that moment. He told the guards his destination was Wave Country, which lies east of Konoha, but he left the village through the west gate. Something important had to be there that he took the detour around half the village. I compared the list of people that left the village through the west gate for the day before, the same day and the day after with the list of people he worked together with or met relatively often. Your name was the only one that matched. When I got the connection to Kosuke through Shinji I was sure it was you." Naruto answered.

Naruto was thinking hard how they could get away. Hinata was watching him intently. Kabuto threw one of his bombs to get them away from their cover, but Naruto intercepted the bomb with a shadow clone.

"Why?" She asked.

Naruto looked at her questioningly. Then he saw one of the rafts drifting down the lava river. He had an idea.

"I don't understand it. Why are you doing all of this? Why are you risking your life to protect me? Please, Naruto, why?" She pleaded.

He looked at her and his face softened. Then the next raft came into view and he pulled her with him towards the lava river.

"Because I love you." He answered. "More than anybody else in this world."

He reached the cliff over the river and looked at her.

"Trust me and be ready to hold your breath." He instructed her and jumped down into the river with her.

"Under the raft." He ordered and they dived under the raft, using it for cover.

Soon they were far enough away from Kabuto to surface again. Naruto noticed that Hinata's face was fairly red.

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><p>Once they were at the end of the fake lava river, Naruto led them towards the part for technology and inventions. He hoped back-up would come soon. Kabuto dispatched of his shadow clones too fast. Perhaps he was a sensor. It wouldn't be that surprising for a skilled medic nin like him. He needed to surprise him to get one of his stronger jutsu to hit. Kabuto was definitely no genin; he fought like a seasoned jonin. He had deceived all the people in the village. When he reached the square with the fountains, his luck ran out and he was grazed by a shuriken on his arm. He turned around to face Kabuto.<p>

"You really are an annoying opponent, Naruto. But now you have no escape route anymore. And you don't really expect to win in an open fight against me?" Kabuto mocked him.

Naruto got in a ready stance. He had to protect Hinata. He could feel that the shuriken was poisoned, but he also knew the Kyubi chakra in his system would filter it out soon. It would only handicap him for a few minutes. Then he looked at his watch and saw it was nearly time.

"Ten, nine, eight …" He began counting.

"What's that? A countdown for your downfall?" Kabuto sneered and activated the medical chakra on his hands to activate another batch of his bombs.

Hinata had another flashback of Naruto counting down from ten.

"Three, two, one, zero." She counted together with him.

Then the fountains activated and Kabuto's hands were pushed up. Hinata's eyes widened in realization. Pictures flashed through her mind, she remembered people that were important in her life and she finally could identify that feeling she always had when Naruto was close to her.

"You are only safe until the fountains stop." Kabuto shouted, walking around to not give away his position.

Naruto meanwhile flew through handseals.

"I wish I knew his position." He said.

"Seventy degrees to your left." Hinata answered with her byakugan activated.

Naruto didn't comment her action, he just took aim at the position she had told him. The fountains came down and Kabuto was ready to throw his bomb at them.

"Wind release: Fury of the Stormgod." Naruto called out and unleashed his jutsu at Kabuto.

Not prepared to dodge such a powerful jutsu so soon after the fountains came down, Naruto's cutting vortex hit point blank and Kabuto was thrown around like a rag doll and his activated bomb exploded into his face.

He fell down hard once the jutsu stopped and Naruto walked over to take away the bombs from him.

"You have lost, Kabuto. I am sure Ibiki will have a lot of questions for you." Naruto commented.

"You are a hero, Naruto." Hinata said smiling brightly at him.

Naruto looked at her and saw in her eyes that she finally remembered.

"Hinata, you…" He started, but was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground.

"Don't count me out that fast, Naruto. You have disturbed my plans for the last time." He sneered, holding Naruto down by his throat, taking a kunai with his other hand.

"Surprised I am up after your jutsu hit me? I will admit, anybody else would be down now, but I have this nice healing factor that allows me to recover with immense speed. I just need to concentrate chakra on the area I need to heal."

Then he was hit from behind with quick successive strikes. He just managed to look around to see Hinata attacking him with gentle fist.

"You…" He said, not being able to control his chakra any longer and feeling his muscles giving out.

"Yes, I remember everything. I remember that you attacked Anko in the bathroom, using your green glowing hands to activate the bombs. I also remember my gentle fist training. And your precious healing ability won't do you any good, because I have interrupted your chakra flow." She told him forcefully.

To her surprise Kabuto still managed to get up shakily, but this time, Naruto had his strongest attack ready.

"Rasengan." He shouted, pressing the spinning orb into Kabuto's stomach.

Kabuto flew spinning into the wall behind him.

"I want to see him getting up from that after you interrupted his chakra." Naruto told Hinata.

"Naruto, Hinata!" They heard shouts from just outside the square.

They looked up and saw their classmates, the guards Kakashi had brought with him to protect Hinata and the Hokage with the back-up. Many were looking at Naruto with open disbelief.

"Oh, shit. That I won't be able to hush up." Naruto commented.

"Why would you want to? The exams are in three days anyway. I think it is time you show your abilities openly." Hinata told him.

"I want to show up Sasuke teme. And if the story gets out earlier the council could try one last attempt to screw me over." Naruto answered.

"Don't worry, Naruto." The Hokage said. "It is the weekend and all the ninja that are here will not tell a thing to anybody until Monday. Is that understood?" He threateningly asked them.

"Yes, Hokage Sama." They answered.

"Hinata!" Kurenai called out.

"Kurenai!" Hinata called happily back.

"You remember?" Kurenai asked surprised.

"Yes, I remember that you have been my escort to the academy for years and were there for me when I had problems that I couldn't discuss with anybody in my clan." Hinata answered.

"I am so happy that you have your memories back, Hinata." Kurenai said smiling.

Then Ino came over.

"Hinata, you really remember?" She asked.

"Yes, I do. You are Ino Yamanaka, the biggest gossip of our class and also the only other girl that can rightfully say she is training to be a kunoichi."

"I am so happy, Hinata. The last days at school were horrible. I never was so ashamed to have thought the Uchiha was a cute guy." Ino said crying and hugging her.

"Good work, Naruto." Kakashi said, eye smiling at his little brother.

"Thanks, Kakashi. I am just happy that Hinata is safe now and we got the murderer." Naruto replied.

Soon the whole group left the park and the Hokage promised to send craftsmen from Konoha to help repairing the damage Kabuto caused. Then a running messenger arrived and announced that Anko Mitarashi had awoken and was out of mortal peril. The cheers about that good news ran through the whole group.

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><p><strong>That's it. How did you like the way Kabuto worked and how he attacked Anko? Please leave reviews. There will be two more chapters until this story is finished. So keep reading.<strong>


	10. Graduation Exams

**Hi, here is the second to last chapter. Only an Epilogue follows.**

**I hope you liked this story even if few wrote reviews. :(**

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><p><strong>Graduation Exams<strong>

It was Monday morning and the academy graduation exams were about to begin. Iruka looked over through the class and noted that everybody was there. He had problems to find Naruto first, because he was missing one feature. He had given up his orange jumpsuit and now wore an out fit that mostly consisted of black clothes. Black pants, a black t-shirt over a dark orange mesh-shirt that was so dark that it might have been brown. He didn't wear his goggles anymore and his blond hair fell more into his face. His shirt had two different emblems on his shoulders, one Iruka knew, the white spiral Naruto had also had on his orange jumpsuit, but the blue and white vortex he didn't know. If he had looked he would have seen that the spiral on the back of Naruto's shirt was also dark orange now but the spirals looked more like tails.

"Good morning, everybody. Today you will take your exams to see if you are ready to become ninjas of Konoha. Concentrate and do your best, then you won't have to fear failing if you have learned the things we have covered during your years here." Iruka said.

"Now I want to introduce you to two proctors that asked to oversee the exams."

Mizuki looked surprised. He hadn't been informed about additional proctors. It would be harder to screw the demon brat over if they were watching. But with the brat being as bad as he was, his plan should still be manageable. He looked towards the door and felt ill when he spotted just who would be watching.

"These are Ibiki Morino and Hiashi Hyuga. They are here to see if any of you show special talents. So do your best. We will start with the written test." Iruka announced and handed one pack of papers to Mizuki. Mizuki was cursing on the inside. With Hiashi Hyuga watching there was no way to exchange Naruto's test for a harder one or to place a genjutsu on it.

The class took an hour to answer all the questions. Naruto finished after forty-five minutes and looked like he was extremely relaxed. Shikamaru shook his head and continued his test. After the successful investigation and the fight he assisted in at the Adventure Land, his mother had threatened him that if he didn't do his exams properly she would show him what the consequences were. It was so troublesome.

Ibiki was the one to collect the tests and looked at Naruto's test and did a double take at the name on top. Then he looked at the boy more closely and began laughing.

"That's great. I can't believe I didn't see it earlier." He laughed. "That will be a slap in the face of the council."

He continued and collected the rest of the tests, still snickering. Only Hiashi had an idea what Ibiki found so funny. When Ibiki handed the tests to Iruka, the class was sent outside for the teachers to check the answers to see which of the students didn't pass and would be sent home already. Iruka, being curious why Ibiki was laughing so hard, searched for Naruto's test and looked at it. First thing he noticed was that all the questions were answered and the answers were all correct. That was a major surprise. Then he shifted his look at the name.

"What? That must be one of his pranks." Iruka exclaimed.

On top of the test was another surname, one he didn't recognize immediately.

"What did he do now?" Mizuki asked.

Iruka showed him the test.

"Naruto Namikaze? Why would he use another surname? I don't know who had that surname, but I am sure I heard it somewhere." Mizuki commented.

Iruka thought hard, the two snickering jonin didn't help. Then he was shocked. He remembered where the name was familiar from.

"That is a joke. He could never be his son." Iruka said.

"Like the boy always said, believe it." Ibiki said. "If you know the relation, it is obvious. Now I really have to get him."

"Just like his mother. She always loved a good joke." Hiashi added.

"Could anybody include me in your conversation? Mizuki asked.

"Namikaze is the surname of the Yondaime Hokage." Iruka explained. "His full name was Minato Namikaze."

"No way!" Mizuki shouted, not believing that the demon was the son of the village hero.

"It's true. Naruto is Minato's son. Hokage Sama confirmed it for me." Hiashi said. "I am here to see how he does during his exams. I owe him a debt for protecting my oldest daughter and revealing a conspiracy in my clan."

"I also want to see how he performs. He held back all the time here. He was an important part of the investigation against Kabuto Yakushi, the traitor that murdered Isamu, Takato and Shuichi. He was the first one to find out who the culprit was and managed to hunt him down. A really interesting boy." Ibiki commented.

Iruka nodded dumbly and continued checking the tests against the answer sheet. Then he sent Mizuki to call the students all back inside. None of them had failed the written test. And the results were really surprising him. Obviously more than one student in his class had held back until now. If somebody had asked him early in the morning today who would be Rookie of the Year, he would have answered Sasuke Uchiha, as the boy had been on top for all his academy career. He aced all parts of the tests and none of the others ever showed to be better. Now he wasn't so sure anymore. Five students had got full marks in the written part, Naruto being one of them. This would be interesting to see going on.

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><p>The next part was the weapon throwing exercise.<p>

"You should just give up, dobe, you have no chance to beat me, an Uchiha." Sasuke bragged.

"You say something, teme?" Naruto asked bored, annoying Sasuke.

"Naruto, don't annoy Sasuke!" Sakura shouted, trying to hit him.

Naruto swiftly dodged the hit, grabbed Sakura's arm and turned it onto her back.

"Don't attack me, Haruno. You need your arm to throw weapons and make handseals. It would be a shame if I had to break it in self-defense, wouldn't it?" Naruto asked coldly.

The others were shocked at Naruto's movements and his tone. Didn't he have a crush on Sakura? Sakura screeched at him to let her go. She would tell her father who was on the council and then he would regret it.

"You are pathetic, Haruno. You will never make it as a ninja. If you can't even protect yourself against me, how do you think you will manage the harsh life of a ninja? The enemy isn't as nice as I am. And I don't care that your father is on the council. My father was Hokage, so don't you dare look down on me anymore. I have had it with your behavior." Naruto stated and let Sakura's arm go.

The other students began talking. Was what Naruto said true? Was he the son of a Hokage?

"Quiet!" Iruka called. "We will now test your skills with throwing weapons. You have to use shuriken and kunai. You have the choice to use another weapon of your choice for extra credit, but it has to be a thrown weapon. Does anybody want to go for the extra exercise? Note that it won't replace the shuriken and kunai scores."

Naruto raised his hand.

"I want to test for senbons, Iruka sensei." He said.

Iruka wrote it down. None of the others wanted to do extra credit.

"Very well, Aburame Shino, you are first."

The students went one after the other to the line from where they had to throw. Most of the children from clans performed better than the civilian children. Then Iruka called up Naruto.

"Namikaze Naruto, you are next."

The students started whispering again. So it was true that Naruto was the Yondaime's son.

"Pah, he still can't beat Sasuke." Sakura scoffed.

Naruto took the shuriken that were placed at the table next to the line and threw them all at once. They hit the targets bulls eye. Then he immediately took the kunai and repeated the feat. The others were giving very believable imitations of goldfishes. Then he took out senbons from his equipment pouch and threw them at the last target, hitting the dummy in all vital areas.

"Full…full marks." Iruka stuttered.

Ibiki was smiling and even Hiashi had a slight upwards curve at his mouth.

"Try beating that, teme." Naruto calmly challenged Sasuke.

When Sasuke was up he managed to hit all the targets but he couldn't use any additional weapons. He was seething. How did the dead last dare to show him up like that? He was an Uchiha, one of the elite. He should be the best. He had always been the best. He would show that dobe what he could do. He would beat him in all the other parts of the exam. He didn't even notice that Shino and Hinata had also got full marks like him.

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><p>The next part were taijutsu spars. They had to demonstrate that they could hold their own against an opponent for at least five minutes. The pairings were drawn from a sack by Mizuki. He would try to let the demon brat look bad. He had noticed the furious look in the Uchiha's eyes and would have those two fight against each other. Sasuke was the best student in taijutsu, he should be able to beat Naruto.<p>

Shino had to go against a civilian student, who was quickly defeated. Shino had obviously decided to go all out for the exams and showed abilities he had hidden before. Hinata showed just how sorry an excuse for a kunoichi Sakura was. She humiliated her thoroughly. First she screwed her over mentally, then she used her juuken to make her lose control over her body functions. It was embarrassing for the girl when Kiba shouted that she had sullied herself. Hiashi raised an eyebrow at that. Normally his daughter wasn't so vindictive. Hinata just smiled sweetly. She had wanted to do that for a while. Nobody treated her Naruto like Sakura had done in the past.

Shikamaru also won his fight, but without being allowed to use jutsu he had a harder time. Nara's just weren't taijutsu specialists. They got teamed up with Akimichis for a reason after all. Then the last fight was Naruto against Sasuke.

"Now you will see that the Uchiha are superior." Sasuke sneered.

"Curious, why didn't we have any Uchiha as Hokage then, Sasuke? I remember the first two were from the Senju clan, the third is from the Sarutobi clan and the fourth, my dad, was from the Namikaze clan. No Uchiha whatsoever. It's strange if your theory is correct." Naruto responded.

"He is really good at riling the Uchiha up. But he is right. The brat needs to be brought down to reality." Ibiki whispered to Hiashi who nodded.

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled and attacked.

"Hey, I didn't start the fight yet." Iruka shouted.

Naruto evaded Sasuke's attacks without problem.

"Stay still, dobe." Sasuke yelled, completely having lost his composure.

"That would be really stupid and an enemy won't make it that easy for you teme. Hey, Iruka sensei, would you mind starting the fight? It is a bit boring to only evade and not hitting back." Naruto asked while still dodging with ease.

"Huh? Of course you can start." Iruka answered.

Naruto started his own attacks. He kicked at Sasuke's legs, making him lose balance and using the opening to place a barrage of punches to his torso and face. Sasuke did his best to block and dodge the fast attacks, but was too slow to block them all. Finally Naruto had enough abusing Sasuke as his punching bag and kicked him out of the ring where the fight was happening.

"Winner: Naruto Namikaze." Iruka said.

Naruto left the ring to sit down next to Hinata.

"You were great, Naruto." Hinata complimented him.

"Thank you, Hinata. The bastard had it coming for some time. Perhaps now he realized that there is always a stronger opponent than him." Naruto replied, smiling at her.

He remembered Friday evening when he was back at the Namikaze estate. Hiashi had asked if Hinata could stay there for the night because he wanted to clean up the Hyuga clan now that Hinata was healed from her amnesia and he wouldn't want her to get between him and the elders. Hanabi was already staying at the Utatanes with Moegi, Koharu's granddaughter, for a girls' night.

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><p>Flashback<p>

Naruto was enjoying the warmth of the hot spring. His muscles had been over-exerted the day and were grateful for the warmth they now received. Then he heard footsteps. Thinking it was his brother, he didn't open his eyes.

"Naruto?" He heard Hinata asking.

Immediately his eyes shot open and he saw the girl he loved standing in front of him, wearing a two piece swimsuit. He was glad that she wore a bikini, but he still got to see so much more than ever before. He hadn't realized until now that she was fairly well developed for a twelve year old girl. He guessed her breasts were already a b-cup. No, bad thoughts. He wouldn't turn into his perverted godfather.

"May I join you?" She asked.

"Of course, come in." He answered.

She left her towel on the stone bench next to the spring and walked into the water using the steps at the right side. Then she walked over to Naruto and leaned against the wall of the spring, closing her eyes contently. They kept silent for a few minutes, just enjoying the spring water and each other's company.

"Naruto, did you really mean what you told me when we fled from Kabuto?" She finally asked.

Naruto knew what she meant. He couldn't and wouldn't take it back. He would reveal his heritage on Monday, it didn't matter anymore to keep his feelings for her secret.

"Yes, I did. I love you, Hinata." He confirmed.

Hinata stepped in front of him, smiling at him.

"I love you too, Naruto. I just never had the courage to tell you." She admitted.

Naruto was happier than ever before. He hadn't been sure if she felt this strongly for him. Sure she had a crush on him, but he didn't know she loved him too. He slowly closed the little distance between them and gently put his lips on hers. It was a very innocent kiss, but it created little happiness explosions in his body.

When he leaned back, he saw Hinata smiling at him.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Hinata?" He asked.

"Yes, Naruto, I would love to." She answered, this time she instigated the kiss.

Flashback end

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><p>Naruto took Hinata's hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. Hiashi seeing this sighed, Ibiki snickered.<p>

"You should have seen that one coming." Ibiki stated.

"I am too young for that. Why couldn't she wait until she was older before she got a boyfriend?" Hiashi complained.

"Perhaps because she has been watching him for years now?" Iruka suggested.

"What?" Hiashi asked shocked. "That has been going on for years?"

"Well, yes?" Iruka carefully answered.

"I will have to question him thoroughly about his intentions." Hiashi murmured.

"Be glad she fell for Naruto and didn't follow the trend to swoon over the Uchiha." Ibiki said.

Hiashi looked slightly sick.

"Oh my god, don't give me that kind of image, Ibiki. No, at least she chose a good boy. But she is still only twelve. I have to make it abundantly clear to both of them that I am way to young to become a grandfather. I hope Naruto comes more after Minato than Kushina in that regard."

"Uh, I don't think they would do that very soon. Hinata and Naruto may have confessed their feelings but she still is a very shy girl. And he wouldn't do anything that could hurt her." Iruka tried to smooth things over.

"He better not." Hiashi said.

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><p>The last part of the exams was the ninjutsu part. They were called into a separate room one by one. When it was Naruto's turn, Hinata pecked him on the cheek for good luck. Once Naruto was in the other room, Ino dropped into the seat next to Hinata and grilled her for details about her relationship with Naruto.<p>

The poor Hinata blushed horribly from some of Ino's suggestions.

Naruto stood in the middle of the room, facing the four proctors.

"Okay, Naruto. The last part of the exams is showing your ability to use clone jutsu." Mizuki explained.

"Okay." Naruto said.

He put his fingers into the sign for shadow clones and produced five perfect clones of himself.

"That wasn't the clone jutsu the academy teaches." Mizuki stated, trying to have Naruto fail this portion.

"No, that was the shadow clone jutsu, an A-rank jutsu. Due to my special circumstances and my relation to three clans that are famous for their enormous chakra reserves I am incapable to use the illusionary clone jutsu. But as the rules for the academy exams state that the normal clone jutsu can be replaced with any other clone jutsu, because the other clone jutsus are of a higher level and therefore more difficult to learn, I don't think that poses a problem." Naruto calmly cleared.

"He is right. I know that that rule has been put into the examination book by the Shodai Hokage himself when he founded the academy." Ibiki confirmed Naruto's statement.

Iruka was more shocked that Naruto obviously knew about the fox than that he was that knowledgeable about the rules.

"Just to satisfy my curiosity, which is the third clan with those reserves you are related to?" Hiashi asked, knowing about the Uzumaki and the Namikaze clans.

"The Senju clan." Naruto informed them.

"I didn't think the relation between the Uzumaki and the Senju was that close that you could call yourself related to them." Hiashi said.

"No, you are right, that relation is too distant, but I am related to the Senju through my dad. The Nidaime Hokage was his grandfather, which makes him my great grandfather." Naruto said grinning.

'The civilian council is so screwed!' Ibiki and Iruka thought simultaneously.

'Change in plans, I have to find another idiot to get me the forbidden scroll. This brat is too high up in the village nobility to risk using him.' Mizuki thought.

'I have to get him as my son-in-law.' Hiashi thought. 'It would be a great win for the clan if we were related to the last Senju descendant in the village and the son of the Yondaime. Perhaps I can refrain from giving him too stern a talking.'

"Okay, Naruto, you pass, congratulations." Iruka said, holding out a headband for him.

Naruto took it and tied it around his forehead.

"Thank you." He said and left the room.

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><p>It was the end of the exams and the only thing remaining to announce was the class standing.<p>

"Okay, congratulations to all of you for passing. You are now ninjas of the village." Iruka told them smiling.

The new ninjas cheered happily at the announcement.

"The only thing I have left to tell you before you can go home and celebrate is the final ranking. Your teams will be announced in one week. I will tell you the top five, the others will be able to read up their position on this list, which will be pinned to the board." Iruka handed the list to Mizuki who pinned it on.

"Okay, the fifth rank is Shikamaru Nara. I am really surprised at this. Why couldn't you put in more effort before now?"

"Too troublesome and my mother threatened me if I didn't do well." Shikamaru answered.

"You have to admit, that's a very good reason, Iruka sensei." Naruto said seriously.

"Whatever. Fourth is Sasuke Uchiha."

That got shouts of outrage from the fangirls of said Uchiha, who didn't believe his ears.

"That has to be a mistake. Sasuke is the best." Sakura screeched.

"Shut up!" Iruka shouted using his demonic head jutsu. "The results are correct. Sasuke's overall score is fourth best. The whole exams have been overseen by two jonin, they would have noticed if something was wrong. Next, third ranked is Shino Aburame."

Shino just nodded at the announcement.

"Second is Hinata Hyuga."

Hinata smiled happily and Naruto kissed her on the cheek, which made her blush.

"And finally, first place and therefore Rookie of the Year is Naruto Namikaze." Iruka put his hands over his ears to avoid getting deaf from the shouts of disbelief, outrage and happiness, respectively from most of the class, Sakura and Naruto in that order.

"How can the dead last suddenly be Rookie of the Year?" Sakura yelled.

Hinata had enough and disabled her vocal cords with a well aimed juuken strike. Hiashi nodded proudly at his daughter's action. How often had he been tempted to do that with the girl's father in council meetings.

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><p><strong>Done. Till next week.<strong>


	11. Epilogue

**And here is the final chapter for this story. I hope you liked the story, the increase in reviews indicates it. Thanks to those that left some. Happy reading.**

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><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

During the next days an outcry ran through the civilian population of the village while many ninjas slapped themselves for not noticing the similarity in looks of Naruto and Minato. The civilian council had tried to bitch, but the Hokage had shot them down forcefully. With passing his exams Naruto was outside their control. They didn't want to believe that Naruto, the demon, could be the son of their hero, the Yondaime Hokage. And to top it, he was the great grandson of the Nidaime, therefore also the great grandnephew of the Shodai. The boy was royalty and he made it abundantly clear that he wouldn't forgive them their behavior towards him while he grew up.

Many business owners also got some nasty surprises. Naruto, being the heir of the Namikaze and Senju clans of the village suddenly owned a good portion of their businesses. He immediately raised their leasing rates to a more appropriate level. Tsunade had let things stay at the level of the time the business places were rented out, so over the past twenty years there hadn't been any changes. She had left the village and didn't want to deal with anything that had to do with Konoha, which had taken her family from her. For the shop owners it meant that they sometimes now had to pay double the money than they had paid before. If they had treated Naruto fairly while he was a child, he might have agreed to a more mellowed increase, but as they didn't he didn't show any mercy. After all, they had made good money on his costs; they now could pay proper leasing rates.

Naruto had sent Tsunade a letter with Jiraiya, hoping his perverted godfather would find her during his travels. The Hokage also sent a letter to her. Naruto informed her that he was still alive and would like to get to know his cousin. The Hokage offered her to start the medical program she had proposed during the second war. Now in peace times they could afford to really imply it. Jiraiya found her and her apprentice Shizune a month after he left the village on his tour to meet his spies. First Tsunade was suspicious, but Jiraiya confirmed both Naruto's heritage and their sensei's proposal.

Tsunade thought hard about the idea of implementing her medical program. She had fought hard for it and it was tempting to realize it, but the village held so many painful memories for her. Finally she decided to meet Naruto at least once. If she felt she couldn't bear staying in the village, she could leave again. But she wanted to meet her last living relative. She decided to travel for a while with Jiraiya, finding out more about Naruto. When Jiraiya had finished his tour, they returned to the village.

Naruto was very happy to meet her. Tsunade was reminded strongly of Nawaki and Dan, especially as Naruto also had the dream to become Hokage. When she asked how he thought he could realize that, he smiled.

"With determination, hard work and never giving up. I love the village, even if I dislike a lot of villagers, I will do everything to protect it. My dad gave his life to protect the village and I will honor his sacrifice by continuing his job. Being Hokage is my dream." Was his answer.

Tsunade over the period of two weeks was changed and began believing Naruto could really do it. He showed her what he had already learned so far and she was very impressed. She agreed to stay in the village and take over leadership for the hospital. She also inspected the graduates of the academy, even those that didn't pass the test of the jonin, and selected a few to train in medical jutsu. But she also ranted to the Hokage about the abysmal training the academy provided in chakra control and basic first aid.

The consequence was a massively reworked curriculum of the academy. The civilian council, most of them massively poorer thanks to fair rents for their premises, didn't dare oppose the head of the Senju clan. Tsunade fully approved of Naruto's decisions during her absence, so there was nothing they could do to get back to former workings.

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><p>Soon all over the elemental nations word spread that in Konoha the son of the Yondaime Hokage had been revealed. Iwa and Kumo had emergency sessions of their leaders, deliberating what they should do.<p>

The one and only assassin who dared to attack Naruto found out that Naruto had learned a lot from Kakashi, and had created his own version of Kakashi's a thousand years of death jutsu. Where Kakashi used chakra powered fingers to catapult his opponent into the air with extreme pain in the rear end, Naruto shoved a rasengan into the same place. After that, somehow the story spread all over the elemental nations, Kakashi just looked innocently when asked how that was possible, nobody thought the gain was worth the pain. Anko, who had fully recovered, begged to be taught that jutsu.

With Naruto's heritage out in the open, many fangirls changed allegiance, but Naruto ignored them, staying loyal to his girlfriend. The council tried to force him to have more than one wife to repopulate the Senju and Namikaze clans, but Tsunade very quickly and very brutally stopped that thought process.

With him being so much stronger than his classmates, Naruto was put in an apprenticeship with Ibiki who finally convinced the Hokage that they couldn't waste the talent Naruto had by keeping him on a normal genin team. Once Kakashi had failed his new team, there was no chance in hell he would pass the Uchiha and his number one fangirl just because the council ordered him to do so, not that anybody had expected Kakashi to ever pass a team, Kakashi also continued training his little brother. Naruto was doing C-rank missions with the genin teams though regularly. Mostly with teams eight and ten. Team eight consisted of Hinata, Shino and Kiba, who were specialized in tracking and team ten were Shikamaru, Ino and Choji.

The civilians were complaining that the last Uchiha hadn't passed the true genin test, but there was nothing they could do. Mizuki, sensing another chance to get the forbidden scroll, told Sasuke there was one other way to be made a genin without a jonin sensei approving of him. He told him about the forbidden scroll and that he had to steal it in a mock mission from the Hokage's office and learn a jutsu from it. If he could do that before the time was up, he would be made a genin. Of course the arrogant fool did just that, or attempted to do it. While he managed to get the scroll using Sakura as a decoy, for once her shrill voice was good for something, he didn't heed the warning of the shadow clone jutsu.

He attempted to learn the jutsu, thinking he as an Uchiha could do it easily and that the chakra cost didn't matter. He was knocked out immediately while Mizuki was apprehended when he was unknowingly leading the ANBU to the place he wanted to get the scroll from Sasuke. Sasuke was put through a mental evaluation by Ibiki and Inoichi and it was found that he was mentally so screwed up that he was dropped from the ninja program and his chakra sealed away. All his bitching didn't help him.

After being cured from her Uchiha obsession Ino took an interest in Shikamaru, but he found being in a relationship too troublesome.

Danzo, in an attempt to gain a bit of control over Naruto, placed one of his best ROOT spies, a boy called Sai, as Naruto's partner. Sadly he underestimated Naruto's ability to change people for the better. Within three months Sai had decided that it would be better for him to follow Naruto instead of Danzo. The two were a strong team and got many high ranking missions done. During the mission to Wave Country, that team ten had been assigned, they were sent as backup when Asuma realized that the mission was of higher rank than the bridge builder had told them before.

After gaining insight on the situation of the people in Wave Country they decided together with Asuma what the best course of action would be. Both boys were skilled infiltration specialists, so they infiltrated the base of Gato in Wave Country and assassinated the despot to free the country while team ten watched the bridge builder Tazuna. As an extra service they also took out all the thugs Gato had hired, collecting the heads of those that had bounties on them. Making money for the village and themselves was always of interest for them. Even Sai had been taught in ROOT to use any chance to gain advantages for the village. They took all the money Gato had stolen from the citizens of Wave country and returned it to the rightful owners, with interest of course, the rest went into the coffers of Konoha.

With his employer dead, Zabuza and his apprentice Haku were surprised by a messenger of the Godaime Mizukage who wanted them back in Kiri three days after the bridge had been finished. After a long negotiation Zabuza returned to the ranks of Kiri, informing the Godaime about the new batch of Konoha genin he had met, especially Naruto Namikaze. Considering his warnings about the skill level of the boy and his partner, the Mizukage decided it would be best for Kiri if they at least had a non-aggression pact with Konoha.

The Sandaime discussed the need for Naruto and Sai's participation in the chunin exams with his advisors. Since Naruto had been revealed as Minato's son and proven his strength, Koharu and Homura were much more open to treat him fairly. They thought it would be good if they entered Naruto and Sai into the exams as both would show the power of Konoha to the clients. They got them one of Tsunade's medic trainees as a third teammate and had them take the exams. And they did it splendidly, massively sabotaging Orochimaru's invasion plans.

But that is another story.

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><p><strong>And finished. If you liked it, please leave reviews. I also have a new Naruto story in planning and hope to soon update Results of a Poker Night.<strong>


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